Now You Notice Me?
by karatekid917
Summary: I have a bone to pick with those teachers. They say you're supposed to come out of highschool with both intellectual and practical smarts. What will I end my 13 year school life with? A mark of 99 and unrequited love. Thanks Jared Thail.
1. Chapter 1

I think it's going to be one of _those_ days. You know, when you can't find a pair of matching socks, dog eats your homework, you're late kinda days.

At school, I'm they quiet and shy girl. You know the stereotype, moved here after the beginning of high school, after everyone else had already bonded in the sandbox since their parents, and their parents parents and their parents parents- well you get the idea, had known each other. I never ended up fitting in with anyone but my two best friends and had an A in every class.

Well, except English.

I've ruined- no, _he's_ ruined my chances of getting straight A's through the past three years.

Though, I suppose it's nothing new to me. Why complain now? He _has_ been messing with my head ever since I moved here and he said those fateful words to me,

_Flashback_

"Sorry, I didn't see you." Said in haste to get to the mornings' first class as I stepped awkwardly out of the car, my mother waving frantically and telling me to 'play nice with the other kids, hun'.

It was from then on, I was completely, irrevocably and deniably in love with Jared.

[Of course, I didn't even know his name at that point. ]

I simply stood there as his retreating form, complemented by a fantastically shaped butt encased in dark denim, giant in comparison to my 5"6, towards the battered doors of the school, with the same institutional wear and tear of hundreds of teens milling through them each day of the week, as my last school.

My mother, was still leaning over to my side of the car from behind the wheel, rambling on, promising yet again that 'this will be the last school you have to move to'.

_End Flashback_

And interestingly enough, it has been my school for the past three years.

Although, I might just keep on my guard, 'cos I still have a year left.

So here I am, trying to cram in all that I can before my time at this tiny school on the reservation is up and it comes time to leave my unfamiliar and unfriendly peers.

But I still have a bone to pick with some of my teachers. Even though I was being assured of topping the teensy grade filled of my fellow dumber than average classmen, I thought that you were supposed to come out of school with both intellectual and practical smarts. What am_ I_ going to come out of high school in La Push with?

A mark of 99 and unrequited love.

Thanks Jared Thail.


	2. Chapter 2

Ah. A new day.

Only a year of them left in this non- consequential town that was merely a speck of dust on the map of Washington State.

I trudged, slowly, so as to delay my time spent alone until my very few select friends arrived. Sass and Emma were the only people in this school who actually thought I was worth talking to, not some horrible piece of over-chewed gum annoyingly stuck to their brand new shoe.

Thankfully, I spotted Sass at her locker, only a little way from my own. I picked my pace up and a smile found its way across my cheeks. Just as my hand reached to the shoulder of my friend,

"Don't be such a loser!"

I withdrew quickly, thinking that Sass was in one of her tempers again, probably caused by her 'hot college boyfriend'. I may be psychic or something, because after she turned around and saw me,(still on the phone I might add) a grin spread across a face and the next thing she said was,

"Just come pick me up, and we're giving Kim a lift too."

Both our smiles picked up further across our cheeks, in a knowing look of how Sass liked, no, _loved _to torment her boyfriend. Sass was gorgeous, but she has somewhat of an attitude that tends to rub most people the wrong way.

That's how our small group became the, well I don't know what we are or how we fit into the standard teenage social hierarchy, but we pretty much kept away from everyone else, and everyone else mainly knew not to come near Sass, -one of my more clever ideas of avoiding being picked on.

She snapped her phone shut without so much as a 'goodbye' or 'I love you' and her strong arms enveloped me in a squeezing hug. Did I also mention that these very arms I was wrapped in were another reason people tended to avoid pissing Sass off? Sass was fantastically athletic and had been training to obtain her black belt in karate since she was three.

She punched Johnny Kiowa in the 9th grade when I first got here- and broke his nose in two places.

To this day, Johnny's nose has a slight bend in it, a small friendly reminder for him to never touch Sass' ass ever again.

After a moment or two of no oxygenated air filling my lungs, I squirmed out of her hold, only to take a deep breath of much needed air into my lungs and be hit, full force in the back, tiny arms wrapping energetically around my waist.

Ah, the devil incarnate- Emma.

Emma Black moved in with her cousin, Jacob just before I came to the reservation. They didn't get on at all in school. He was the typical bad boy- always missing school, hanging out with Sam Uley and his 'gang' and was sinfully gorgeous. However, Jacob Black wasn't the one in my sights.

Emma and he got on like best friends at home though. I think it's horrible that he practically ignores her at school and then does the whole about face thing when they hang together at home.

I've hung out with them a few times and he seems like a really nice guy, just not when he's with is mates.

The guys in this town are huge, well, some of them. There's a select few who are just…giant! I swear they're not normal…the women here must carry some mutant gene that makes their boys grow to the size of oaks.

Jacob's steadily getting there.

Emma came from a messed up home. She never likes to rehash horrible memories, so we don't push it.

I'm pretty sure, though, that her dad beat her mum, and that's why she moved in with her uncle and cousin. She couldn't handle her father being such a monster and her mother being so weak as to put up with it.

She released my waist and the three of us stood, chatting idly at the lockers amidst a sea of deafening, colourful kids, all thinking they're better than one another, no different than the other three school's I've experienced.

Funny thing is that there aren't even that many of them- La Push High hasn't got over 350 kids.

My last school had over 1300.

The jocks, the cheerleaders hanging off their necks, the geeks perpetually shoving their glasses back up the bridge of their noses, the emos in all their black glory, the middle class kids who were nice to you when the popular's weren't around, and then there was us.

I honestly didn't know where we fitted in- but it was **definitely** not in Jared Thail's class.

…..


	3. Chapter 3

"You're not _still_ hung up on him are you?!" A harsh voice sounding from behind me, interrupted me from my beautiful Jared thoughts.

"No!" I protested. I hated it when Sass did that. She would lean back on her chair staring at me straight in the face, catch me off guard and pull the desk a little out from under my elbows.

Always at least once a lesson.

She always had the knack for knowing exactly what I was thinking about, but my face didn't really help when it looked like I was trying to mentally strip-

"Well it looks like it. You've been staring at him the whole lesson and, aw gee, done absolutely no work whatsoever! What's the matter? Learning about the historic Russian revolution gotcha bored?"

"Keep your voice down!" I grumbled quietly back at Sass, ripping my eyes form his gorgeous form and blushing as bright as a tomato.

I was so worried he was going to hear her one of these days. I was sure chaos would ensue if Jared ever found out I had been secretly crushing on him since day one of high school here.

Actually you know what? His response would probably begin with, "Who?"

Just then, that gorgeous head of hair was out of my sight, and instead, all I saw were two of the most soulful eyes I had ever set my sights on. Jared's eyes were a beautiful hazelnut flecked with gold and pierced straight through my very being.

He leaned closer to me, Sass's eyes widening in shock as she stared at the two of us, and started to say, "Do you have a pen I could borrow?"

I blushed profusely, set a shaking hand into my pencil case, extracted a blue pen and held it out to him. Disappointed, as her turned back to his work, I put my head down and began to read about Lenin and his corrupted government.

Sass's snorts of laughter steadily grew to hysterical hiccoughs of amusement, but was immediately reprimanded by Ms Davey, a disapproving look colouring her face purple as she yelled at Sass to get out of her classroom and not disturb anyone else on her way out.

Sass, still laughing her ass off walked out of the room; I flashed a death glare at her as she exited.

The rest of English was embarrassingly quiet, Kim still a vivid shade of pink, Jared using her pen. At the end of the lesson, Kim silently self coached herself on how to accept her pen back, but when she looked up, the chair next to her was untidily pushed in, free of Jared and his gorgeous butt.

Dumbfounded at the gorgeous pen thief, Kim gathered her stuff and went off in search of Emma who was a little more sympathetic to her situation.

…..

"Kim, maybe it's time to let go...you know, move on and all."

Those words had been said to me numerous times over the past few years, but now, after the pen incident this morning, I was wondering if I really should take steps to forget being Mrs Thail and living out my fairytale dreams of happily ever after.

"I know, but after so long, it's just gonna be sooooo hard."I murmured quietly.

"Let's go out tonight! We'll drive up to Seattle-"

"Emma! It's a school night," the nerd in me intervened.

"Well. Okay, If you're so straight laced, we'll go out Friday night, find a suitable gentleman for you, yummy squeeze for me and some man-whore for Sass. I'm coming over after school Friday and we'll get dolled up and everything!"

"Sass has a boyfriend."

"When has that let her stop her?"

"Alright," I said quietly, giving in whilst knowing that I'd never win anyway, "I'm driving though." About to protest, Emma chuckled, and then realised it was probably the best idea.

…..

Tuesday, after my self-proclaimed (or peer pressured and prompted) Jared free life, I sat alone in English for the first time in a while. The assigned seating that we were way too old for dictated that I sat alone for this lesson and for once, I got most of my work done.

Maybe there's hope for my grade yet?

……

It was Wednesday and I supposed that Jared was making this easier for me. I'm not sure how eager I would've been after Monday's chat with Emma to steer my thoughts away from Jared. With him being gone for the past two days, I had seen that it was possible to live without his presence next to me every day in English.

Even if I still thought about him in the hallways.

And in PE.

And at home…

…...

Thursday came and went, still no sign of Jared. It was nearly Friday- the day I had promised to Emma. I couldn't remember why I had agreed to it, it was practically like signing my life away …and my third toe.

The day dragged, and yet again I found myself in English, pining for Jared's presence next to me, not saying anything, not seeing me, just there.

I settled for Sass's company instead and she got me into trouble with Mrs Davey at least eight times while she was consistently leaning on the hind legs of her chair and whisper yelling to me at every opportunity, and then some.

If it's not my secret crush love trying to make me fail, it was my best friend.

The world is against me passing English. It just wasn't meant to be.

The final bell rang, so I made my way to my locker, slower than usual, attempting to come up with an excuse credible enough to get me out of Seattle tomorrow night.

Mum said no.…so sneak out…nah no good.

I've got loads of homework…you can do it tomorrow…damn it.

…the dog bit me and its now infected… wait you don't have a dog…..

Crap. Am I never going to be able to come up with a sufficient excuse to dodge my best friends part animal demeanor?!


	4. Chapter 4

"KIM!" my name was yelled, followed by loud squealing, hooting and whistling from my two friends.

Honestly, those two are a nightmare.

As I hunched my shoulders in embarrassment, they made their way surprisingly quickly over to me and grabbed both of my wrists.

"Kim, hurry up! We have to get ready."

"Yeah, Kim if you don't hurry Sass won't be able to get her whore make up on."

"Shut up ugly."

"Slut."

"You're breath smells like garbage."

Laughter followed, along with a swift smack to Emma's arm and a smack upside the head to Sass.

As different as we were, I couldn't help but love these two. They brought laughter to my dull world and made up for all the outgoing and loud personality I didn't possess.

I drove the three of us in my battered second hand sedan to my place, where they had previously dropped off their clothes for tonight, plus pajamas, toothbrush, straighteners, sleeping bags, curlers, ice cream…you know, typical sleep over girly stuff.

Immediately I was ushered into the shower to wash away the dirty feeling of a long day at school and went into my room wrapped in a towel to find the clothes that the two of them had designated for my use tonight.

The devil's advocates had learned from few past experiences that I refuse point blank to wear anything that shows too much skin. So a pair of dark denim skinny jeans awaited my use, as well as a white and black singlet top, which I assume would be tucked into my jeans. They chose well this time, I approved.

So I threw on the jeans and top, started drying my hair and went in search of the two, currently making themselves right at home in my bathroom and living room.

"Kimmy," she knew I hated that name, "where's your anti frizz serum?"

"My what?"

"Oh God, it's an outrage, a scandal, sacrilege!" There goes Emma with her histrionics again. Trust her to freak over some serum I don't own.

"Okay, that's it," I Shouted from the other side of the house to wherever the two devils were, "We're leaving in half an hour whether you have knickers and your face on or not."

Gasps could be heard about the house as I see a blur of Sass sprinting to the bathroom.

……

The music pounding and reverberating in my head, the smell of alcohol on some drunk's breath and no Jared, was so not my idea of fun. Though, it did amaze me to watch two gorgeous, but underage girls flirt their way into a nightclub.

So far, I had been forced to dance with three guys; one drunk, a creeper and a gay- he was sweet and clearly not interested, so I danced twice with him whilst complaining about being in the club.

By 12pm I had had just about enough. I scanned around the humid dark club for the likes of Sass and Emma, saw both and decided to grab Emma before I grabbed Sass, she looked a little busy…

"Emma!" I yelled as loud as I could, "I wanna get outta here, come on." Emma pouted a little, but didn't mind seeing as the guy she was dancing with started to close his eyes and grab for her ass.

I pulled her out of his grasp quickly, the guy rudely awoken from his dreams, and Emma made a lame excuse to get away from the leech.

"Right, where's Sass? If I have to get pulled away from that dreamboat, so does she."

"Uh, well, you see, that's her, over there," I yelled pointing towards a tangle of arms and legs in an even darker corner of the club.

Emma began to march straight towards the writhing couple and yanked on Sass's closest hand.

Sass looked up at us and disengaged from her..uh..guy. He looked angry with us at being interrupted and grabbed Sass's wrist to pull her back down to the height of the barstool.

She turned around and said, "Thanks, that was fun. I'll see ya around," a smile plastered to her face, and turned away, only to find he had held tighter on to her wrist and was now pulling her once again.

"Look can you just let go mate? I don't want to do anything we'll regret." Sass was reasonable and I could see she was visibly trying to control her quick temper, but the guy just wouldn't let up.

Big mistake on his part.

"I told you to LET GO ASSHOLE," and with that, this muscled guy went flying over the bar in one neat execution, smashing three empty glasses, a shot of tequila and a pretzel bowl on his way.

"So, you guys ready to get outta here?"

……


	5. Chapter 5

"So, find anyone who's not Jared and meets your standards?" Sass questioned.

"Not really. But thanks for trying guys. I guess it'll come in time," I half whispered.

God it was so pathetic how hung up on Jared I was. It's just that, yeah he may not have seen me, but he was the centre of my universe for so long, my eyes always on him and what he was doing.

I know, it sounds stalker like. It probably is a little. It even got to the point where I had a running route mapped out that passed his house.

I ran every day.

It was pathetic really, but I couldn't help myself. Being obsessed with Jared was like a drug addiction, after the first taste, I was hooked.

"Hey, don't worry chickadee. We'll find someone even better!" Emma crooned to me. Chickadee? Where did she come up with this stuff?

"Yeah yeah, now let's go get some breakfast, I said to the both of them.

Two dumbfounded faces looked in my direction, so I amended, "Okay,_ I'll_ go make some pancakes and you guys can sit there and watch."

That was better. Two smiling faces shone back towards me and I turned towards the kitchen where I could rustle up some ingredients for pancakes.

…..

Nine pancakes, four hours and three full stomach's later, Emma chucked all her stuff in her bag and hauled it to Jacob's car.

Jake aimed a friendly wave at Sass and I, which we returned with a half hearted salute and set her on her way home.

I turned to look back at my house, only to find Sass already storming through the threshold, yelling wildly at what I assumed to be that college boyfriend of hers again.

A car promptly pulled up twenty minutes later, and I bid a happier Sass farewell, smiling to myself as I saw the poor guy cop a whack as she got into the car.

I slouched around the house for the rest of the day, nothing to do, no one to see.

Unfortunately, I finished all my homework, leaving my mind to wander freely, back to Jared and his extended absence…


	6. Chapter 6

_Three weeks later_

"Okay, now I'm worried. It's been three weeks and he's _still _not back! What if he seriously hurt himself or something?" I Fretted and whispered at Sass in English.

Yet again.

It had been four weeks since Jared had been at school and I was considering going to the hospital myself to make sure he wasn't in there. He's never been away for this long and I'm seriously worried.

But it's totally just a serious concern for a classmate.

I mean, I'd be this concerned if it was the girl I was partnered with in gym yesterday.

What was her name again?

Okay. Who am I kidding? I'm freaking because it's Jared. The only people I'd be more worried about in a state of prolonged absence are Sass and Emma.

Even then, I'd probably leave it a few more days before the serious concern kicked in…

The bell put an end to my fussing and cut Sass off from uttering words of hate for Jared and my secret one sided love affair with him.

So I gathered my books and pencil case, still minus that one pen I let him borrow, which he obviously decided to keep and moved on to Chemistry.

A Jared free class. How upsetting.

……

I sat down in Ms Hather's Chemistry class, preparing myself for another boring lesson...

…without Jared.

However, as soon as she started the class, I realised that I hadn't brought the homework from last night with me- I had been too distracted at Jared's repeated absence.

This tiny obsession of mine really was pathetic, huh?

Ok. New resolution: Forget Jared as much as possible…which wasn't really possible.

I suppose I have to try though. I can't lead my life in hope of Jared one day sweeping me off my feet and carrying me into a secluded cabin in the woods and…

I cleared my throat and looked around the busy classroom, slightly turning pink.

I left the room hurriedly to retrieve the homework, forgotten in my locker half way across the tiny school of La Push High.

My eyes scanned and squinted at the brightly coloured posters and flyers lining the corridor walls, promoting what little school cheer and spirit we actually retained from being smashed in all sports known to man.

Scanning all the open classrooms as I went, I happened to notice one in particular. Mr Mortlock's grade 11 maths.

In that room, with about 15 half asleep students, sitting in the front row, but towards the large open window was Jared. The very same Jared I had been fretting over last period.

'Why wasn't he in English?' I thought heatedly to myself. Damn the boy. Does he really have to go around worrying me like that?!

Today, he looked different. Bigger, if possible, more intimidating maybe? I wasn't sure. Though, he wasn't his usual confident self, the way he held his head in the chin to chest position, as if feeling defeated?

There _was_ something.

His big frame was encased in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, despite the weather being an unseasonable 15 degrees. Did this boy want pneumonia?

Imagine what a nervous wreck I'd be if I knew he had that?!

As I walked past his line of vision, his head, previously in a dream state on his desk, shot up and looked directly into my eyes. It was an odd action, like he knew I was coming, or something.

My steps faltered, my heart racing like a formula one car and all brain activity ceased all together.

For what seemed like hours, days even, we held each other's gazes, nothing distracting us from the piercing eyes of one another. Suddenly, in a horrifyingly embarrassing moment, I thought I saw Jared attempt to make a move to get up from his seat.

I must, of course have, been dreaming this cataclysmic encounter, apart from the fact that right at that point, Mr Mortlock called on Jared for an answer to his dull equations. Jared, with his gaze still on what I could only assume in disbelief to be me, ignored the teacher.

When he was yet again called on, for the third time with more force, Jared ripped his eyes from mine, looked blankly at the teacher, and I rushed on, shaking my head at my ridiculous fantasies.

…….


	7. Chapter 7

I hurried down the corridor, shaking my head at my deranged mental state.

God how pathetic was I? I cannot seriously believe I just imagined that.

I wasn't that creative, was I?

I was rehashing my beautiful dreams when I thought I heard my name, and inane yelling in the background. I dismissed it at once, but a strong baritone voice persisted.

"Kim! Please, wait!" His husky voice called me from three classroom lengths away.

Yet again, brain activity was down for the count and my feet came to a halt of their own volition. I turned slowly, and, to my utter distrust of my own mind, thought I saw Jared jogging towards me.

I shook my head and made to turn around yet again, dismissing my absurd schoolgirl fantasies, when I yet again heard him calling.

"No, Kim, please. Wait"

This scene, as picturesque and beautiful in my mind as it was, came to a shuddering halt when I saw Mr Mortlock, in all his balding and chubby glory waddling after Jared, a very vivid shade of red.

Jared seemed to take no notice of this, and instead advanced towards my still form.

I however looked between the two sources of noise, one not aware of the other and finally rested my gaze on the God approaching me at an inhuman speed.

By this point in time, after all the yelling that both males, one considerably more attractive and fit than the other, had done, the tiny population of La Push High's student body that were in their respective classes, had milled out of their rooms, curious as to the commotion that had taken their attention away from their boredom filled lessons.

Jared was now within very close proximity of me, maybe a 30cm ruler's worth, and my brain was beginning to be deprived of oxygen, taken from the fact that I hadn't taken a breath since he got so close to me.

I inhaled a shaky breath and blinked stupidly at Jared.

Two words, shouted towards me and heard by the entire school changed my life in that very moment.

"YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL!!"

…..

"MR THAIL!"

Right then, Jared reached for my hand, taking it in his large warm one, and pulled me further towards him.

"MR THAIL! GET AWAY FROM HER! YOU WILL GO TO THE PRINCIPALS OFFICE THIS MINUTE!"

This was the point at which Jared realised that maybe, just maybe, this was the wrong time to stage this revelation.

……

"Uh, but sir, um, I have to…I have…"

"**Well?!** What is it?"

"Kim's pen," Jared said proudly still gazing into my eyes, "I have Kim's pen and I had to give it back to her." Jared was grinning, still looking at me, blushing furiously by this point in absolute embarrassment. Most of the school was now watching this exchange.

"The pen couldn't wait until lunch? I don't think so. Straight to the principal's office. NOW!"

My head down, I felt a sudden tug at my hand. Jared's considerably larger one was wrapped around mine and he was obviously trying to pull me to the principal's office as well.

For the first time in this whole exchange, I whispered in a quiet voice, "Jared, I have to go get my homework."

It was returned with an intense gaze, hand still held and "Oh. Right. Sure. What homework?"

"Um, chemistry." I smiled up at him, meeting an intense stare. I still wasn't sure what this was about, but even if it was a joke or some sick part of my imagination playing tricks on me, I didn't care.

_Jared's _hand was holding _mine..._

And not because the PE teacher teaching us to waltz two years ago told him to.

"Okay, well, I'll see you later Kim?" the question usually reserved for brush offs and people you really didn't want to see later, but Jared made it seem like a genuine question.

"Sure I guess," I replied, not really thinking that much into it.

Jared, still looking deep into my eyes, stood where he was, not moving.

"JARED!" Mr Mortlock's angry voice yet again.

He reluctantly turned away, Mr Mortlock hot on his heels and he murmured something like, "right. Chem. Only one classroom for that…"

I was still standing in the crowded hall, and decided quickly that it was a tad embarrassing, so I yet again tucked my chin to my chest and hurried towards my locker.

……..


	8. Chapter 8

"And so then what? He just shouted "YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL" to you in front of the whole school?"

"Yes," I whispered, still dazed from my encounter.

"Maybe he was off his face…"

"Em! I don't know what he was, but he sure didn't seem like himself."

"Exactly," Emma reasoned, "Why else would he act so off? Hmm. Never thought him to be the one though…But they do say it's always the one you least expect.." Emma was yet again muttering to herself, while I played the scene over and over again in my head, trying to make sense of it.

……

"_YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL!!"_

"_MR THAIL! GET AWAY FROM HER! YOU WILL GO TO THE PRINCIPALS OFFICE THIS MINUTE!"_

_Jared's hand was holding mine..._

"_Okay, I'll see you later Kim?"_

Every time I rewound and played back that scene from mere minutes ago, all I could think was that it must've been my imagination. Jared's never before noticed me, let alone called me beautiful.

…

_DING!_

Uh oh. Someone so has their phone in their pocket and my bet is on Laura Fenway.

I haven't liked her since cheated off my maths test about three months after I started here and got me into the deepest shit ever with my parents.

I never let that go, I mean, I wasn't grounded or anything, my parents didn't believe in that sort of thing, but I got the whole, "We're very disappointed in you" lecture and I hated when I was on my parents bad side, even if it hardly ever happened.

Sure enough, if my bet had been on the roulette wheel, I would've won a million dollars, because Laura pulled her phone from her pocket, tapped away for a minute or so, gasped, then looked up to see a particularly irate looking Ms Hather standing over her.

Stupid. She deserves that. They tell you again and again to leave the damn thing in your locker, but apparently she seems to think that rule doesn't apply to her.

I snuck a look over at Emma who was silently sniggering at Laura being told off and having her phone extracted from her devastated grip.

Emma wasn't particularly fond of dear Laura either. Let's just say when those two fight dirty, you don't want to be anywhere near them with breakables in their reach.

Emma stills bears a scar to this very day…but I'd be willing to bet Laura's is bigger.

In any case, after Ms Hather had left the classroom to hand the phone into student services to be picked up at the end of the day, along with a detention slip (YES! Justice..)

She turned from her seat across the room from me and stared with wide eyes…

Right before leaning over to the girl in front of her and whispering furiously into her ear, which in turn caused the girl to stare at me and pass the message on.

Oh fantastic. So obviously word is going around the school about my little 'encounter'.

Oh yeah. They won't think of me as pathetic.

Not at all.

And no one's going to be talking about me. And Jared.

No. not at all. ARGH!

……


	9. Chapter 9

"I'll talk with you later Kim," Emma rushed out of chemistry like a bat out of hell, while I was left, slowly piling my books into my hands until I was the very last one in the room.

I was thinking yet again about Jared. IF it really did happen, and the murmurings that disrupted the rest of chemistry class sorta reaffirmed that it did, why now?

What made him look at me today?

I brushed my teeth this morning…nah I do that every day.

…I washed my hair…you do that pretty often too…

Okay well maybe it's the new earrings? You got these last year.

Gasp! It's the braces….You don't have braces loser.

Oh. Right.

It wasn't until I bumped into a hard wall that had the distinctly male smell of the outdoors was that I realised I wasn't alone.

Just outside the classroom, books immediately dropping to the marked linoleum of the hallway, to my utter surprise and horror I had smacked straight into Jared, rocking back precariously on my heels while his large, warm hands grabbed my wrists to steady me. His hands wrapped right around my fragile looking wrists, though his touch was careful enough to handle a duckling.

"Kim. Hi," Jared gazed straight into my eyes, with that same uncomfortable soul bearing gaze as with our previous encounter.

"I didn't think you were serious about seeing me again!" I blurted, my hand going to my forehead immediately after my word vomit had destroyed my chances with him.

"What?"

"I mean, Um, so I guess they didn't suspend you huh?" Jared looked blankly at me, never taking his eyes from mine. I sighed as comprehension finally dawned upon him.

"Oh, haha, nah just a stern talking to about appropriate behaviour and setting a good example…you know the lot," Kim didn't, but she nodded anyway.

"So, I was wondering," Jared finally tore his gaze and hands from mine and knelt down to gather my forgotten books, laying strewn at our feet, "Did you maybe, uh, well I was wondering if…"

I liked stuttering Jared. He made me feel more secure about my own lack of verbal capabilities when around him. "Yes?" I prompted.

"Iwaswonderingifyoumaybewannacomehavelunchwithmeandmyfriends?"

His words were garbled, everything was said in one breath but Kim understood immediately.

"Um. Well. Yeah, sure," I said shyly. I looked at his tall figure through my lashes, a fully-blown grin beginning to form on his beautiful face.

With that confirmation, my books in his left hand and my hand in his other, we set off towards the cafeteria.

…..

"Hey sorry, I should've asked if you wanted to go to your locker first…we can still go and then make it back to the cafeteria before everything good gets eaten by Paul," Jared half mumbled, eyes on me the whole time, waiting to gauge my reaction.

I smiled softly and chanced a look at him, muttering, "No, its fine really. We can't have Paul eating everything now, can we?" I was more confident with my words as we walked down the halls together, in pursuit of hunger fulfilment.

"Yeah, well, he would if he got half a chance…bloody pig…"

I could believe that.

Jared was second in height at La Push High by only Paul.

He had muscles on top of his muscles and a temper to match. He was a scary kid who most avoided like the plague. Is that who Jared meant when he said we were sitting with his friends?"

"Paul! You haven't eaten everything yet have you mate? If you did, you're sooo gonna get it on pat-the weekend."

Well. That answers that question.

……

"So, Kimmy," Paul started.

"It's Kim," I returned bravely.

"I like Kimmy," Paul grinned and kept going, "any friends you can hook me up with?"

That earned a slap upside the head from Jared, which then caused Paul to slam down his fork and shove Jared sideways, Paul beginning to go red in the face.

"Uh, you know what," I tried to mediate, "I reckon we could find you someone. Trust me. By the end of this year, you'll have someone."

I so hoped I could deliver on that, otherwise this may very well be the end of my rather short and boring life.

Paul sat back down, returned to his normal colour and resumed shovelling garbage cans full of food into his mouth at once.

I looked at him in utter disbelief, before Jared quizzed me on basically every aspect of my life, and then some.

"So Kim, what are your parents like?"

"uh, normal? Mum loves to live through me, Dad loves to sit back and watch from the sidelines. I like it that way though, even if mum meddles a little too much sometimes."

"What's your favourite food?"

"My grandmother's home-baked fresh out of the oven apple pie." That one earned a nod of approval from Paul.

"What's the last thing you think about when you go to bed?"

"uh, I don't know…maybe what's happened that day?"

"Do you like me?"

"What?! Uh, um. Well you're…," Paul was in fits of laughter, while Jared remained completely serious, "what I mean to say is, well, we've only really been talking since, uh this morning..and I don't really uh, know you well enough, personally, to make a decsio-"

_BRING_

Saved by the bell. How cliché.

"Okay, well Kim, what about an easier question: You, er, wanna go out with me, um on, uh.. Saturday night?"

……

Okay. Almost home free.

Only twenty more metres.

Fifteen.

Ten.

Eight.

Six.

Fiv- "**KIM!!"**

_SHIT!_

I totally though I'd escape them. So much for outrunning a black belt.

Two pairs of harsh hands seized my arms and spun me around, backing my feet up until I was pushed up against the side of my car.

"Kim, you can't seriously leave us hanging. Emma told me all about your little lover's moment during chemistry today. You have to spill. You have no choice in the matter."

Emma joined in, "Yeah come on Kim, I totally left you after chemistry so you could be alone with him. You owe me! And I choose to take my reward in the form of gossip about Jared and you.

Having lunch.

Together."

"GASP! Emma! You didn't tell me about **that** bit…so that's where you were, oh Kimmy you minx, you!"

"Guys, nothing happened. We had lunch. We talked." Kim lowered her voice an octave as she caught sight of Jared striding purposefully towards the group, "…but I think it's safe to say.."

"Kim, hi," Jared loomed over us.

"He now notices me."

The other two whipped around and tilting their heads back to see the intruder, their mouths gaping.

Jared's hand stretched out to mine, Emma's grasp sliding straight off my arm in the process.

"Sass. Emma." A nod to each astounded figure, "I think I'm going to drive Kim home today, would one of you mind driving her car back to her place?"

Two heads silently nodded in tandem compliance and Jared smiled while pulling me away from the two.

**Aren't you guys lucky! TWO chapters in one day! I go back to school tomorrow so I'll try to be pretty frequent in updating, but don't stone me if it's a little late! I promise no less than one update a week!**

**Thanks for all your support and reviews- they make me think I'm doing something right!!**

**Oh and I forgot a disclaimer!**

**I OWN ALL TWILIGHT**

**Ahem, have I ever mentioned I'm a compulsive liar?**


	10. Chapter 10

"I wanted to keep playing 20 questions with you, that's all," Jared reasoned with me as I asked him why we were now riding in his Mustang, the car he proudly told me he paid for on his own and worked on with his friends.

I was still puzzled at this sudden friendship. It was all so new to me. After years of craving his presence in my life, I finally achieved my goal.

"Okay," I mumbled in defeat, "Shoot I guess.."

"How come you hang with Sass and Emma? They seem so different to you. You're, quiet and shy and beautiful, whereas they..they're loud, and brash? And completely the opposite to you."

I contemplated Jared's question, but only hesitated a moment.

"You know what they say right? Opposites attract and all. I suppose we balance each other out, you know? Sass has too much aggression, so I keep her calm, Emma is wild on the inside, Sass gives her a good example to follow, I'm too quiet, so they both bring me out of my shell.

They bring me out of my comfort zone, and even if I don't want to, it's fun and often a learning experience for me. Every birthday, their combined present to me is the ability to cross something off my list."

"Your list?" Jared asks.

"Yeah, its kinda stupid I know, but I'm a list person. And the most important one is my "Things to do before I die" list. It contains everything I want to experience, some things of which I know I can't do on my own. They help me with it. Sorry, I'm rambling." I let out a strangled laugh.

"No, no, I love listening to your voice Kim. That's cool. I don't need a list but. Everything I wanna get done is up here," Jared tapped the side of his head and laughed.

I chuckled, "Well Mr fantastic memory, I'm sorry that I have a hard copy of my list, but that way I know it'll get done."

Jared contemplated all this information, "Can I see said list?"

"NO," I practically screamed, "I mean, its personal. Maybe one day."

He seemed content with the latter part of my rejection. Then I had a question of my own that had been bugging me. It may not be a fantastic idea to ask, but I went ahead anyway.

"Jared, mind if I ask you a question now?"

"What? Why me? Today's my turn to question you."

He had a specific question day to question me?  
I looked at him through my lashes and did my best impression of Sass sucking up to her boyfriend.

"Please Jared?" Eyes wide, mouth slack-jawed and head nodding of its own volition, I proceeded.

Wow. No wonder Sass gets what she wants. Always…

"Jared, seriously, now you notice me?"

"I mean, I'm not exactly the new girl anymo-"

Just then, a howl sounded in the distance of the woods on the edge of my property. Jared's head whipped around to the direction it had come from.

"Uh- Kim, look I'm really sorry, but I have to go." Jared replied distractedly, still staring into the woods.

"What?" I responded.

"I, I –I uh really have to go. I'm so sorry but-"

"Jared," I said softly, "It's okay."

"Thanks Kim, you're amazing," and with that he swiftly kissed my cheek as I climbed out of his car, turning and walking straight up the path to my front door. When I was there, I turned back to see Jared watching me, maybe to see if I got there safely?

And then he reversed the car and screeched off in the other direction.

"_He will answer that question sometime."_

……

"Kim, who was that? I didn't recognise the car," Dad yelled out to me from his study.

I walked through the dark hallway and sat down on the couch in my father's study, as he eyed me suspiciously from across his mahogany antique desk.

"A new friend," I answered innocently, looking at a seemingly important thread coming from my sleeve.

"Who? Do I know this 'friend's' parents?"

Trust Dad to care about something like that.

"I don't know, do you know the Thail's?" Uh oh, calm down Kim, he doesn't appreciate the sarcasm.

"Actually I do. I think it's nice you're hanging out with someone younger than you."

Cue confusion..

"Dad, what? Jared's the same age as me I don't know what _you're_ talking abou-"

"Jared? I thought you were hanging out with a girl! That girl, Alyssa Thail?"

Argh. Come on Kim, get it over with. "No Dad, I never said it was a girl Thail, only a Thail.

It's Jared. As in a boy.

As in the other species.

As in he's got- ahem, well, he's a boy."

Hmph. Grumble. "well. Uh, go talk to your mother about it." Yeah. Did I mention dad wasn't good with this sort of thing?

He's reduced to mono syllables and his mind is immediately at rest when I go talk to mum. What he doesn't know is that mum not only encourages me, but basically lives her second life through me.

…..

"Mum, dad said to come talk to you."

My mother looked puzzled, then her face slowly transformed to a knowing look. "Ahh, a girly problem I suppose. Well what is it this time? Let me guess, it's the whole hormone thing.."

"What!? No, mum…I got a lift home today."

I shifted uncomfortably on the end of the bed my mother was lounging in the middle of reading one of her expensive glossy mags she had imported every month from Seattle.

"Well, Jared Thail just dropp-" SQUEAL! Mum through the mag to the side, it sliding down in between the bed and her bedside table, where it would lay forgotten for at least an hour or two.

"Jared Thail?! Kimmy, why didn't you tell me before? So? Spill!"

"Mum," I said in a hushed tone fearful of my father and his inability to hear about teen matters, "Don't get too excited, he just dropped me off," my voice steadily got louder, "and kissed me on the cheek!" I ended up squealing.

Okay. So I'm a girl. I'm a big girl whose crush of like, years and years, just kissed her on the cheek. I'm having a girly moment here. Sue me, it doesn't happen very often.

"OMG Kimmy. Tell me the details…"

……


	11. Chapter 11

Okay, so I've been trying to avoid finally walking to English for the past 10 minutes, and I don't know how much longer I can do it.

The plan was to wait until everyone else had gone into English, the lesson already started and avoid any chances for awkward conversation between me and Jared.

I mean, if he even wanted to talk to me. What if yesterday was some sort of, I don't know, one off fling?

I fretted…intensely.

And, being the perpetual nerd I am, I now find myself giving in and am now currently putting one foot in front of the other in the direction of English.

The door is still open, so I'm not late thank God, but I can see the teacher just behind me, so if I can manage to walk straight to Sass' desk with my head down, the teacher should be here and settling he class in like, 50 seconds and I'll be able to avoid-

"Kim! Hi," bugger. No such luck.

On the upside, he _does_ want to talk to me.

I pulled my head up to be met with the stares of the entire class- yes all fifteen of us, and Jared who was completely oblivious to the situation at hand.

I yet again put my chin to my chest and made my way to our desk.

Ahhhh. How beautiful that sounded…_our_ desk.

KIM! Snap out of it you love sick hormonal teen!

I smiled softly at Jared and sat down, dropping my books to the desk, making a loud slamming noise in the otherwise silent classroom.

As I turned to Jared, I noticed a fully-blown grin on his face facing me. My heart started beating double time as I said "Hi," in response to his earlier greeting.

Just as Jared opened his mouth to articulate a rejoinder, Ms Davey called the class to order, many of them still staring blatantly at Jared and I.

"Hello everyone, welcome to today's lesson. I know it's going to be just as great as the last one," Ms Davey is really sarcastic and upset by our lack of enthusiasm for English.

As always.

"Today, I want you to begin working on a presentation that would educate others on images of good and evil, as seen in your current area of study, Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. Work in pairs as per your seating arrangements."

_My heart lurched._

"You have the next four lessons to work on it, and if needs be, and I suspect the need will be with you lot, you will work on it outside of class time."

_My heart practically dropped to the floor._

"Work closely together. I want equal shares of the work done and I will know if it is not. Stick .to .your. partner .like .glue."

_Ms Davey stomped on my poor heart with her 70's style heels and then threw it into the garbage bin._

How was I going to get through this?? Working closely with Jared was going to be nightmare. What if I do or say something wrong? I'll ruin everything!

……

"So, partner, any ideas for the project?" Jared looked at me expectantly.

I stared, my mind completely blank.

"Uh, well I was thinking maybe a PowerPoint?" Jared looked at me anxiously.

"Kim?"

"Oh, right, sorry. Yeah," I blushed stuttering on my words, "PowerPoint is good. Let's get started."

So we worked well the entire lesson, discussing images of good and evil we could incorporate into our Power Point and making notes of them to Google when we get onto a computer.

Contrary to my previous beliefs and to my shame, stereotypes, Jared was bright. He offered worthwhile suggestions and explained them well. It also amazed me, or at least I amazed myself at how well our conversation flowed. No awkwardness as I had expected.

"Voldemort is so evil. I mean, c'mon. You've read the book, seen the movie and he is portrayed entirely evil. Even when he was a boy he was torturing little kids and animals. He wasn't even misguided, he couldn't discern between power and evil."

I nodded my head, realising how my own prejudices had tainted my view of Jared and his friends.

Probably because he never paid attention to me and was missing from school quite a bit, I had formed the belief that Jared wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. How wrong I was. It was just rude to assume something like that.

"Kim?"

"Yeah?" I replied snapping out of my self-deprecating mind talk.

"So, we didn't get much done in the way of putting our ideas on Power Point, so I was wondering, do you wanna come over to my place after school so we can get it started? I mean, Ms Davey reckons we're a bunch of idiots who won't get the work done, so we can prove her wrong…" Jared was rambling now.

"Sure," I suddenly turned red and to cover my stalker tendencies I asked, "So Jared, where do you live?"


	12. Chapter 12

Jared unlocked the door of the blue two story house, almost idyllic with its little daisy bushes, paved path and love swing hanging from the porch.

He swung the door open and stepped back, "After you."

I looked straight at him, and mentally sighed. Someone has taught this boy right.

Images of Mr Darcy came straight to mind.

Thankyou Mrs Thail.

"So, Kim, I wanted to sorta tell you something, and its kinda important-" Jared was cut off by loud barking and the sound of four paws scrambling down the darkened hallway and I was practically knocked off my feet.

"Umph!"

"No! Jaffa, down! Now. Back off you big lug," Jared tried to coax the over friendly dog away from my slobbery face and then grabbed him by the collar.

"Sorry about him, he gets pretty excited," Jared said chuckling and affectionately ruffling the dog's thick coat.

Silence.

"Kim? Are you okay? He wouldn't harm you, he's scared of butterflies!"

"Uh, yeah. Just caught me off guard. Never really been into dogs."

Jared's face looked crestfallen.

It was just a mutt right?

Well then Kim, if it's just a mutt, why does Jared look as though you just shunned his best friend?

Great. The little sarcastic voice in your head is coming out when you're in the most awkward situation of our life.

……

JPOV

She wasn't into dogs?

Shit. What the hell is she gonna want with me then?

I was just an overgrown dog after all.

I mumbled to Kim to make herself at home, pointing her in the direction of the living room and dragged Jaffa to the back door where he'd be able to set him out to play in the yard.

Jared sat on the step of the house and lowered his head into his hands, sighing in defeat.

Jaffa's big brown eyes looked at his master and joined the sombre mood. The dog lay his head on Jared's knee, so their faces were at the same level, two pairs of sad brown eyes looking intently at each other.

"What am I gonna do bud? She's my everything and she doesn't know it. And now, to add to it, she hates dogs! I'm just like you mate and she just basically cringed away from you in disgust, no offense."

The dog let out a whine, "Yeah, I know, that's how I feel. No one understands but you. Help me Jaff. How do I tell her that my world revolves around her? That I'd give anything in the world for her to feel safe in my arms, or just be happy even? That she as the most beautiful, soulful eyes that sparkle when she's both nervous and happy. That I notice when she's worried that she's going to say the wrong thing she purses her lips in that sexy form that makes me want to kiss her senseless. That I'd jump in front of a speeding train to save her, or that once I turned into a wolf and fate gave me a push, I realised I love her?"

Jaffa cocked his head to the side and barked once, short and sharp, like a command.

"You're right Jaffa. I'm not going to let this discourage me. She's everything to me and I'm not going to give up without a fight. Thanks mate. You're one of a kind."

……

The next three days flew by. Kim drove to Jared's house after school every day to work on their project, which was sure to attain an A and became more and more accustomed with Jared's way of life.

…

The second day was only marginally better than the first.

BOOF!

"Ouch! Damnit dog, why do you have to hit me every time?" and Jared led Jaffa to the back door, panting at the effort.

…

Third day was better. No knocking over Kim, and there was a greeting.

"Hi mutt," okay, so not a very nice one, but acknowledgement all the same.

…

The fourth day, "Hi dog, Jared don't worry we just really have to get this finished, just leave him."

Jared felt a little better at Kim's reaction to Jaffa. He had also talked to Sam and the rest of the pack, who all said that dogs grow on people and there was no way she could resist Jared's cuddly demeanour as a wolf.

"yeah, and when she gets cold at night, you can curl up at the end of her bed, keep her toes warm and get a peep show at the same time-"

The last sentiment earned Paul a swift smack upside the head, in true NCIS DiNozzo style, from Sam.

After which Jared's most volatile pack brother leapt up from the table of snickering overgrown boys and ran into the woods, an echoing ripping sound following.

So Jared, feeling a little better about Kim's attitude towards the general four legged population and he himself after spending four days together, carried the USB with their finished product to English


	13. Chapter 13

……

"And so, Jared and I have put together a Power Point to represent our understanding of good and evil.

Jared hit the lights and started the presentation.

They had worked so hard on this presentation, spent so much time together working on it.

They had grown closer and talked as if good friends, rather than recently acquainted crush and stalker girl.

Nods of approval from both Ms Davey and the students were visible in the darkened classroom and earned a round of applause at the end of their show.

Ms Davey was practically gleaming with pride that two of her students 'showed such promise never before seen in _this_ classroom' and told the rest of the class that their presentations better be of the same standards.

Many heads came chin to chest and most of the class slumped in their seats, groaning at the set precedent.

The bell rang shrilly through the school and the teacher looked pleased.

As class was dismissed, Jared and Kim were packing up their stuff when Sass came to speak with the pair.

"Hi Jared, Kim. Good presentation! Though I do feel you could have enlightened the young minds on more simple evils such as my own presentation will demonstrate, such as ogres, maths teachers and werewolves. I mean, you guys set the standard a little high for us mere mortals." Sass chuckled, Kim joined and Jared visibly paled underneath his russet skin.

"Thanks Sass, but our minds stray towards the more complex and large scale, REAL evils, such as Hitler, Lord Voldemort and -"

Jared turned on the spot and shot out of the classroom, leaving the two chuckling girls confused.

They turned to each other, perplexed at Jared's sudden departure, Sass questioning, "Did I say something wrong?"

…….


	14. Chapter 14

_Ding Dong!_

Kim stood at the now familiar blue door, ornately carved and waited patiently for Jared to open the door.

However, it was not Jared who opened the door, but a homely looking woman, a confused smile on her face, whisps of hair framing her beautiful face, familiar hazelnut eyes with gold flecked through them- Jared's eyes, and what Kim assumed to be flour smeared on one cheek.

"Hi! Can I help you hun?" She had a lovely motherly voice, very unlike her own mothers, which was high pitched and giggly like a teen.

"Oh, ah, I was looking for Jared? Maybe I should just come back.." Kim trailed off.

"Ah, Kim is it?" How did she know that?

"Jared's told me all about you," He has?

"I'm Rebecca, Jared's mother. Would you like to come inside? I've just been baking chocolate chip cookies, Jared's favourite." Rebecca chuckled and added a conspirational wink.

"Uh, sure." Kim stepped over the threshold and followed Rebecca into the kitchen, towards the heavenly aroma of freshly baked cookies.

Kim sat at the counter top on a stool, while Rebecca bustled around the kitchen.

"Drink? I'm just about to put tea on for myself, would you like a tea or hot chocolate or something?"

Definitely a natural born mother.

"Yes, please. A hot chocolate on a rainy day like this is a godsend."

As she rifled and rumaged through some cupboards for hot chocolate and tea bags, Rebecca started to talk.

"You know Kim, _oof!_ I've gotta say thank-you."_ Bump_

"What for? I didn't do anything!"

"Kim, Jared's been happier in the past few weeks than he has in a long time, and as his mother, believe me I've noticed the difference. He's happy.

"But Jared's always happy. I think it's just his natural demeanour."

"Kim, he's happy when he's around you, which is why you've never seen him in a temper or upset."

"I don't think-… I mean- ah," Kim started to stutter, shocked at the nature of the conversation with Jared's mum, or at the content she wasn't sure.

_Crash! _"Crap. Damnit."

"Oh! Let me help you with that," Kim hopped off the stool and skipped around to the pile of containers and lids that Rebecca had just let loose out of the cupboard they were precariously stacked in.

"Thanks. But Kim, thank you. Honestly you don't see the change because you are the change. Come around any time you want."

"Oh, thanks." Kim turned red and became silent as she and Rebecca finished picking up and re-piling all the lids and containers into the cupboard and managed to shut the door quickly without them spilling back out.

The kettle boiled and the ladies sat and chatted for about an hour before they realised how long they had been talking.

It started to rain. Pelting down, practically raining cats and dogs.

"Kim, I've got to get to the airstrip to pick up my husband. You really can't go home just yet, it's raining pretty hard out there and I'd feel terrible if something happened in the wet. Stay here until Jared gets home, he should be here soon, and then you can drive together so I know you're safe, okay?"

Rebecca grabbed her coat, umbrella and slipped on a pair of shoes, Kim following her to the door.

"And could I be a pain and ask you to grab the cookies out of the oven? They should be ready in about 15. Thanks Kim."

And with that, Rebecca closed the door.

Kim started back towards the kitchen, down the long hall swept up in meeting Jared's mother and how lovely a person she was, when the door opened again.

Expecting it to be Jared, Kim swung around eagerly, only to see Rebecca, sopping wet poke her head through the door.

"Forgot my blasted keys. And Kim?"

Kim answered hesitantly, "Yes?"

"It was an absolute pleasure to meet you. I hope to see more of you."

And as she closed the door for the second time, she yelled out, "Can you drag Jaffa inside? He doesn't like storms!" and with that thunder cracked over head.

"Fantastic," Kim muttered to the empty house.

……

"_Please_ Jaffa, just come IN!" Kim dragged at the stubborn dog's collar, getting more drenched by the second.

"Seriously mutt, I know you don't like storms, I don't like them much either," _CRACK_, "Okay, make you a deal, you come inside and I'll give you a cookie." Kim sang hopefully.

Not working kimmy. Okay. What the hell do I do? I can't deal with mutts.

Kim then crouched down to Jaffa's level, and stroked his wet coat, reassuringly and tugged gently, this time, on his collar.

Suddenly, albeit reluctantly, Jaffa climbed to all fours and followed the tugging to the house.

Together, they ambled into the house and finally Kim let go of his collar and walked briskly down the hallway to the living room.

Kim went to the heater and started pushing buttons in a haste to get the darn thing to work. Finally, the gas lighter clicked and the room started to warm up.

Just then, Kim remembered the cookies, so dripping wet, she went to the kitchen, grabbed an oven mitt and grabbed the cookies out, setting them to rest on a cooling rack.

She saw Jaffa shake his fur and potter his way into the living room, the source of the heat.

_Well darn, I'm not going to get very dry in these sopping wet clothes. _

_You and your damn phobias, mutt._

_Well, I hope Jared doesn't mind sharing clothes with me…_

Kim climbed the stairs, turning left when she reached the top, knowing that that was the way Jared always turned when in search of something he's left in his room whilst they were putting together their presentation.

Two doors were presented to Kim, and instinctively, she chose the one on her right.

Kim turned the brass handle, hearing it slowly click, creaked the door open enough to admit her small figure and shut the door behind her.

It wasn't what she expected to say the least.

The room was blue like the rest of the house, and had a manly 'Jared' feeling to it.

The king sized bed must've been a recent acquisition, probably due to the sudden growth spurt Jared had gone through and was covered in a plain white bedspread.

There were few pictures on the bedside table; his parents grinning happily at the local airstrip, Jared and two others, a boy and a girl, looked to be taken about a year ago, prior to Jared's amazing growth spurt, a brother and sister maybe_? Possibly the Alyssa my dad thought of when I said Thail._ And finally, what looked to be the most recent, a photograph of Sam Uley, Jacob Black, Paul Walts, Jared and two others Kim could've guessed were in the same year as Jacob. Kim wasn't fond of this picture and looked away.

_Kim, stop being nosey, find some clothes and get out._

Suddenly, my gaze landed on a pen, but it was no ordinary pen of Jared's. It's mine! I eyed the pen, leaving it where it was and vowed to tease him about it later.

Where of course he'd be in full remorse, bordering depressed at stealing my pen. I shook my head at nothing in particular and wondered about Jared.

Okay, so he's asked me out and we're supposed to be going out tomorrow, but why has he suddenly noticed me now? He never gave me a second look before…

Finally, Kim looked through a draw and luckily on her first attempt, not willing to delve much further and intrude in Jared's personal items, and found a humungous t-shirt and some grey sweat pants.

Shrugging out of her own wet clothes, she changed quickly, feeling funny about changing in Jared's room and made her way quickly and quietly out of the room, back down the stairs and into the kitchen, pulling on and tying the drawstring on the huge pants.

The cookies were still warm and she took a small handful back to the living room with her, where she found Jaffa pretty much waiting her return with the cookies.

"Smart mutt. You so knew what I was saying back there didn't you? You knew about the cookies. Devil."

Kim, keeping her distance still, tossed a warm cookie to the hungry looking dog and as he chewed, she sat down in front of the heater, on the plush carpet and munched on a cookie herself.

The day's activities had worn Kim thin, and she lay down, placing her head on a soft spot in the carpet, stretching her body out.

She loved being in Jared's house. It was so warm and homey, and made her feel kind of safe.

She had no idea why, but when she was with Jared, or in his house, she felt protected, like nothing wrong could happen.

Suddenly, the previously closed eyes flew open, her heart racing as she felt a furry, but warm body next to her back and the head of Jaffa plop itself heavily in the crook of her waist.

Kim tensed for a moment and the dog lifted its head questioningly.

Thinking that it may be best just to stay as she were and the dog won't eat her, Kim relaxed, almost revelling in the secure feel of a warm body curled behind her and slowly nodded off.

…….


	15. Chapter 15

JPOV

After hearing Kim's agreement on her friend's images of evil, I couldn't bear it.

I ran as quickly as possible, feeling the tight feeling in my chest become painfully larger, into the forest and phased for the first time in weeks with no control whatsoever.

Clothes shredded, class missed and Kim behind, I ran as fast as my wolf form would let me through the forest, swerving inhumanly fast in between large trees.

_Man, I'm sorry. That was harsh._

_Paul, piss off. I'm just really not in the mood right now. Just, leave me alone._

_Dude, I'm trying to help you feel bett-_

Jared turned quickly and rammed into Paul so fast he neither believed it possible

Paul huffed, but backed off and ran in the direction of Sam's.

_Yeah that's right. Go and tell my sob story to Sam. Tell him how my imprint sees the image of a werewolf as pure evil, and on top of that, not even real. Thanks pal._

_Jared. Enough. _

Sam appeared next to me and I slowed down, realising that my attitude wasn't going to help much.

I phased back and took the clothes Sam held out for me.

"I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you guys. But this is just so hard. She hates me and she doesn't even know it. Hell. She doesn't even know the real me."

"Jared," Sam replied in a soothing voice, no longer commanding, "Trust me, it'll get better. You know what I've told you about imprinting. It's a stronger pull than just love. You two are made for each other, no one else, and she'll realise that with time. For now, you're just going to have to be there for her and not push it."

"Yeah, I know."

"Now come on, Emily's just baked some muffins, you know you're welcome any time, right?"

"Thanks Sam, but I think I'm just going to head home."

So I headed back, through the rain, not caring about my drenched state and didn't realise how I'd gotten there until finally I'd reached my house.

I pushed the door open, dripping onto the carpet and knowing I'd pay the consequences later.

I trudged down the hallway, "Mum?" I yelled out, but to no avail. She must be out.

Smelling the comforting aroma of chocolate chip cookies, Jared wandered into the kitchen and realised the oven was just cooling.

"Not long gone then.." and then he found the cookies. "Thanks Ma. You always know just how to fix me up. Can you fix my love life too?" Jared murmured, talking to no one in the room.

In search of a dry pair of clothes, Jared raced up to his room and looked for his favourite sweats and a shirt.

_Odd._

_Mum must've taken them for washing. But I was sure that I had only put them- whatever._

Sighing, Jared grabbed another pair of sweatpants and a shirt, pulling the pants on in the process of ambling down the stairs, making a bit of noise on the way.

Jared made a beeline for the tv room.

When he stepped fully into the living room with the intention of firing up the heater asap to try and dry his clothes before his mum saw, he faltered when he realised he wasn't alone in the house.

Jaffa was laying against a small body in front of the heater, and Jared approached quietly, wanting to surprise the intruder.

Then, he got a whiff of the scent this 'intruder' sent out.

Kim.

……


	16. Chapter 16

_Then, he got a whiff of the scent this 'intruder' sent out._

_Kim._

……

Jared's heart practically dropped onto the carpet next to his bare feet at the sight of Kim's sleeping form, cuddled up against Jaffa.

He had no idea what she was doing here, but she belonged.

He stood there, revelling in the beautiful sight of Kim cuddled up against the dog she had previously despised and felt that there was hope for them yet.

He took a step closer, and the soft padding of his foot on the carpet must have been louder than he thought, because at his second step, Kim's eyes slowly blinked open and Jared stood mesmerised at the beautiful dark brown orbs.

A soft smile gracing her lips, Kim slowly shut her eyes again, only to have them fly open as soon as she realised this wasn't a dream.

"You're wearing my favourite sweats." _Smooth you idiot. Real smooth._

"I, uh, sorry?"

Jared chuckled and began to make his way over to Kim, plopped himself beside her head and silenced her explanations by moving down to her level, and pressing his own lips to her soft ones.

It was pure magic. The world could've come crashing down around them at that moment and neither would've noticed.

Without breaking apart, Kim sat up, wound her arms around Jared's warm, but wet neck and pushed him backwards.

Contented confusion spread throughout Jared, as a more confident Kim came out of her shell, her luscious lips moving soundly against his.

When they broke apart for air, Kim leaned her forehead against his own, panting and practically on top of Jared's body.

In one swift movement, Jared rolled and came to be half laying on top of Kim this time and looked deeply into her eyes.

"Hi," Jared whispered, nuzzling her cheek.

Kim blushed fifteen shades of pink and returned with a small, "Hey."

"Well, I don't know about you, but that was explosive."

Kim laughed nervously. "Yeah, yeah it was."

Jared pushed himself upwards, and Kim ached from the loss of contact, but not for long and Jared pulled her around until she was sitting up between his knees, laying back on his warm chest.

They sat there contented, in silence, until Jared remembered that he had no idea how she got in here.

"Hey, so what are you doing here?"

"Oh, well if you want I could just leave…"

"NO! I meant, how did you get in here?"

"Relax Jared, I was just joking. I came looking for you after school, you know, the thing you ditched after English? And your mum let me in, we had a chat, you know…"

"You talked to mum?"

"Your mother's lovely."

"Wait, what did you talk about?"

"Oh, bits and pieces, you know, girl talk."

"huh."

"Anyway, what was the ditching about anyway? Was it something me or Sass said? I'm sorry if it was."

"Hey, don't apologise. No worries. I just- had to get out, clear my head y'know?"

"Alright, just don't make a habit of it. School's important you know?"

"Yes mum."

Kim playfully smacked Jared's knee, then turned her head around to kiss him intimately on the jaw. Still surprised at the new confident Kim, Jared stopped her from turning back and took possession of her lips yet again.

Wrapped in each other's embrace, they were startled to hear a door slamming in the distance hat must've been Jared's mother.

Kim attempted to jump out of Jared's grasp, but he leaned down to her ear, holding on to her tighter, and whispered, "Mum's not going to care. I bet she thinks you're amazing already, just like me."

Kim blushed at this, still slightly nervous.

When two people walked into the room, Kim felt the temperature climb further.

Jared stood up, dragging a reluctant Kim with him.

"Mum, Dad,"


	17. Chapter 17

_Jared stood up, dragging Kim with him. _

"_Mum, Dad," _

……_._

_Wait, what? Dad too? I'm meeting Jared's father…dressed in Jared's clothing. Fantastic.I don't look like some obsessed skanky teen do I? Yeah Kimmy, keep telling yourself that._

"This is Kim."

Twin smiles spread across Jared's parents' faces, and Rebecca stepped forward and pulled Kim out of Jared's warm embrace. She hugged Kim fiercely, whispering into her ear, "See? Always happy around you."

Kim giggled and hugged Rebecca back.

"Okay, mum, MUM, let go now, give me back my girlfriend."

_SQUEAL. Girlfriend? Wow. I am officially melting._

_Oh Kimmy, you teen fan, you._

"Okay, well no need to worry about mum having to warm up to you. She loves you more than me at the moment." Jared said to Kim puzzled by his mother's actions.

Then Jared stepped towards his father, saying, "Dad, Kim, Kim- Dad."

And a large hand, not quite as warm as Jared's wrapped around mine, Jared's dad introducing himself. "Kim, it's lovely to meet you. I'm Tom."

Smiling, I nodded. "Lovely to meet you too."

"Alright," Rebecca announced, "Now that the scary meet the parents thing is over, why don't you stay for dinner Kim?"

"If it's not too much trouble…Thank-you. I better just call my parents to let them know. May I use your phone?"

Rebecca nodded eagerly and led me away to the landline.

I dialled quickly, and my father, to my misfortune answered on the second ring.

"Hey dad, it's me, Kim. Look I'm going to stay at a friend's place for dinner, is that okay?"

"Kimmy, hi. Who's the friend?"

"er, Jared." I blushed at having to reveal this to my father.

"Oh. The Thail boy?"

"Yes dad."

I then hear the phone being covered, and a muffled, "_Carol! Carol come and talk to your daughter,"_

Great. Why am I always _her _daughter when dad can't deal with the situation?

"_She's staying for dinner with a friend. A male friend. Speak with her will you?"_

A squeal sounded. Mum, honestly.

"Kimmy! Are you by any chance having dinner at the Thail house??"

"Yes mum."

"Well, that's fine. Just make sure you're not home too late?"

"Yes mum."

"And be safe Kimmy, we don't need a baby on the way, though I would like grandkids sometime-"

"MUM!"

"Alright alright. See you when you get home. I want all the goss."

My mother really needs to learn to grow up. I hung up the phone, tied Jared's sweats a little tighter around my waist and headed back down the hall towards the living room where the family had gathered.

The door was ajar, and I could hear the voices from within.

Without meaning to eavesdrop, I leant closer to the door to hear the topic of conversation and was surprised, as it was me.

…_Jared, she's lovely, you couldn't have imprinted on someone with a bigger heart of gold._

Imprinted?

…_beautiful too…_

I blushed

_We're so happy for you_

_You guys be quiet will you? She doesn't know and I want to keep it that way for a little longer…_

What didn't I know?

…_But you'll bring her around as often as possible right?_

_Yes mum_

Inwardly I was both confused and excited. He and his family wanted me around, so I wasn't a total retard who stuffed up the 'meet the parents' spiel, but what was he hiding?

At this point, walked in the door, as if I hadn't heard a thing. I felt slightly guilty at the eavesdropping, but more confident that they liked me, which took a load off my shoulders. I was never good at meeting new people, but the Thail's were so easy to get along with.

As I walked further into the room, it went silent, except for Jared who met me halfway, put his arm around my waist and led me to the newest member of the room. I don't think I'd ever get used to that. I blushed vividly. Again.

"Kim, this is my younger sister Alyssa."

I put out my hand, "it's nice to meet-" and was instead enveloped in a gigantic hug, not dissimilar to her mothers.

Alyssa was beautiful to say the least. She was maybe a half a foot shorter than me, a midget compared to her brother and had an excited melodic voice to match her exotic features.

"Kim, it's sooo nice to meet you. I've been wondering when this idiot would get a girlfriend, honestly I thought never because-"

"ALYSSA!" A reproachful shout at the young girl didn't faze her, as she kept going,

"What are you doing with this idiot? You're absolutely gorgeous and-"

"Alyssa honey," more forceful this time with an apologetic glance in my direction from Rebecca, "I need help in the kitchen. Come. Now."

Alyssa beamed at me and followed her mother, Jared slightly red just behind me.

"I think I'll go help your mother…" Tom subtly looked for a way to leave us alone, and exited the room.

Jared came up behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist and settled his chin down on my shoulder, exhaling gratefully.

"Sorry," he whispered into my ear, "they can be a bit full on sometimes. Shit, actually, wait till you meet Johnny, he's going to be worse, I can just tell."

I chuckled and turned in his arms, wrapping mine around his neck and settling my head in the crook of his shoulder.

"I'm sure mine's going to be worse, and I don't even have any siblings."

I was surprised even at my own affectionate actions. Our, relationship? If that's what you could call it yet, had progressed very fast. It had gone from Jared not even noticing my existence, to Jared wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing me when I least expected it, all in a very short period.

Sure I was worried what would come of this, but I've officially decided to enjoy it while it lasts. I had been pining for Jared for so long; I may as well give myself a reward.

We heard a faint, "Dinner!" and began to walk towards the dining room, hand in hand.

……


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note- PLEASE READ**

Okay guys, I NEVER put in notes because unless you really have something ot say, I find them rather irritating.

I do have a point. I swear!

So this is the last of my pre-written chapters (where I went on a crazy 2 day binge and just typed every chapter you've read so far) and now have no document on my computer.

I might leave updating for maybe a week or so until I see where I want to take this. Don't shun me, just keep your eyes out for an update…I mean you can't really complain anyway- 3 chapters in one night??!!! I surprised even myself.

Thank-you from the bottom of my heart for the reviews- I swear if you walked into my room while I was reading reviews you'd think I was high- I LOVE REVIEWS SO MUCH!! They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

And now…on with the story!

…….

Dinner was amazing, I don't just mean the food.

Jared's family was warm and welcoming, each asking their own questions of me and revealing the deepest most embarrassing parts of Jared's past which I relished with many fits of laughter.

"…Then he said 'congratulations on the baby' and the woman is like, what baby!? Jared of course with his big mouth returns with, aren't you pregnant? And the woman turns basically purple and chases him around the shopping centre, hitting him with her bag the whole way!"

Jared, slightly pink, growled lightly, "I honestly thought she was. And that bag was heavy!"

The conversation flowed easily and Kim learnt a lot about the Thails, in exchange for information about herself of course.

"So Kim," this was from Jared's father, "What do you want to do when you get out of school?"

"Well, I've always been interested in medicine, particularly paediatrics. If I get the marks and I get in, I'd like to study to become a paediatrician."

After my answer, you could've heard a pin drop. I didn't know why they were suddenly so silent. Did they not like doctors?

Jared cleared his throat.

"Wow Kim. You truly are an amazing person."

Though his words sounded sincere, he seemed a little dejected.

Alyssa spoke up next, "wow. So she's smart too. I still don't know what you're doing with my bro-"

"Alyssa!" came three voices from around the table.

I laughed nervously, looked over at Jared, took his hand in my own and said quietly, "Honestly Alyssa, I don't know what he's doing with me. I'm the lucky one."

……

Rebecca was able to dry my clothes and Jared waited outside the door while I changed in his room.

When I finished, I opened the door and was picked up bridal style by Jared who rushed into the room and then plonked both of us on his huge bed.

In a tangle of arms and legs, Jared said, "hmph. You changed. You don't know how hot it is to see you in my clothes. Feel free to wear them more often."

I blushed, and Jared trailed kisses down my neck, stopping only when we both hear a "Jared! As much as I love Kim, you should probably take her home, it's getting late."

We both groaned at this, but I pulled Jared to his feet, not without his cooperation of course- there was no way I'd be able to lift even his arm without his cooperation, he was too big!

……


	19. Chapter 19

**Feel lucky!! TWO chapters in one update! Ok. I've just found out I've won a scholarship to JAPAN!! Therefore I will be leaving in less than 2 weeks…so I'm going to make you guys a promise: I will endeavour to write AND post at the very least, three chapters before I go…(which is a feat within itself as I have four assessments counting towards HSC to do before I go) BUT this promise is made on the proviso that all of you who subscribe to this story REVIEW! I seriously squeal like a little girl when I get a review…in turn…I'll try to reply to each review… thanks!**

……

"And he WHAT?!" Yelled Sass.

"He, um, kinda kissed me?"

"I'm not deaf, I heard you! But, he did WHAT?!"

I was confused now. What did she want me to reply with?

"Yeah, he made some comment about me being in his clothes and then, yeah…"I replied yet again.

Emma, Sass and I were standing around my car…or at least I was cowering as Sass and Emma towered menacingly over me.

"Why didn't you call last night?" Emma asked.

"I, uh-.."

"I can't believe it! The Gods have thrown our little Kimmy a lifeline! Praise all that's holy and hot in this world!" Sass yelling at the top of her lungs.

"God! Sass! Wanna scream any louder? I don't think they heard you in Timbuktu yet."My face had grown a warm shade of pink, as always.

Those two must seriously choreograph moments like this, because next thing I know, they're both in chorus; "Our little Kimmy's grown up!"

How. Embarrassing. Can. You. Get!??

Irritated, I stormed off in the direction of the school entrance, throwing a look over at the two giggling devils as I turned to lock my car.

I turned back around, only to smack straight into a- wall?

"Kim, if you wanted to get close to me, all you had to do was ask." Jared Thail smirked down at me as I quickly grew red in the face again.

Was my embarrassment never to end?

I made to step back, not sure of our public relationship yet, but was prevented from doing so by two large, very warm hands wrapped around my waist.

Loud wolf whistles and cat calls came blowing through the wind, and when I turned my head around in the direction of Jared's vision, I saw that yet again, my friends were doing their absolute best to embarrass me.

Those two were going to get it one day.

Jared's baritone voice was suddenly whispering into my ear, "Think we can put them in their places?"

Surprising myself, I turned my lips into a cocky smile, slid my arms up to tangle around Jared's neck and brought my face closer and closer to his until….

Soft, sweet lips met mine, and the whole earth stopped.

I lost all sense of time and place until I heard a very irate voice yelling out our names.

Jared pulled back, and leaned his forehead against mine, where he whispered, "Oh shit."

……


	20. Chapter 20

"Kim," Jared whispered in my direction out of the corner of his mouth. "I'm so sorry for getting you into trouble-"

"It's okay Jared."

"I'll tell them it was completely my fault and you had no part in it-"

"it's fine, honestly."

"Well, I mean you did take part, you just, uh, I'll tell them you fainted-"

"Jared-"

"Yeah, fainted! And I was just doing CPR…" Now he looked positively proud of himself.

"JARED! It's fine. And I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think the fainting thing would've worked anyway," I giggled uncontrollably at the thought of Jared having to explain something like that.

"Oh. Right. Yeah, stupid huh? But I swear I could come up with something better?"

Jared's face was positively crestfallen.

I scooted over to the chair separating us in the principal's office and leant my head on his shoulder, where he settled down differently and moved me to his lap.

Almost comfortable, the principal came out to get us, and surprisingly wasn't surprised at our position.

"Kimberly, Jared, disentangle yourselves and come this way," Mrs Jamison swept her arm through the door as we got up and sat down in her office.

"Look, kids, honestly, I don't care that you two are 'hooking up' or are 'together' or whatever you want to call it, but please find the appropriate time and place, ie not school, so I don't have Mr Mortlock breathing down my neck again, OK?"

"And Jared, please, from now on don't follow Kim out of your classes. Mr Mortlock, surprise surprise, was yet again not impressed with that behaviour. For the sake of my ears, please just repress those hormonal teenage sexual urges and keep 30cm away from each other during school, right? Okay, feel free to escort yourselves to class. I've got a taekwondo instructional dvd script to write and bunch of papers god knows who wants me to sign, so scoot."

After they made their way out of the office, stifling laughter and stumbling together, they found an empty classroom, of which Jared decided to find a good use for.

He pulled Kim, dragging her covertly and still laughing, into the classroom, before gently pushing her up against the wall and cutting off her giggles with a fervent kiss.

It could've been hours they were standing there together, locked in a passionate embrace, but it was more like five or so minutes when Kim pulled back, and caught her breath, looking soulfully up into Jared's eyes.

Their eyes locked, bodies so close there wouldn't have been room to slip a piece of paper between, Jared felt guilt strike his stomach like a lightning bolt.

Not able to tear his eyes away, and wanting to relieve himself of the guilt, he began, "Kim, I-"

Kim sighed, "Yeah?"

"Well, I wanted to tell you-"

The sound of 'sexy bitch' startled Kim and broke off Jared's words, and Kim reached to her back pocket to retrieve the source of the loud irritation.

"Sass, what?...NO! I mean, no..we, uh, oh piss off would you?...talk to you later…or not"

Kim slapped the phone shut, her colour heightening with every second.

Jared brought his hand up to her cheek, cupping the red skin and sliding his thumb over it in a soothing gesture.

"God, she can be such a…UGH!"

Kim's eyes closed, and she sighed. "We should get to class. What was it you were going to say?"

"I-nothing," Jared's smile fell a little, "I'll tell you later."

And with that, they left the classroom, making sure no one was walking past before shutting the door quietly and creeping off to their respective classes with a small parting wave.

……


	21. Chapter 21

"So, what are you going to wear on the date?"

"Huh?" I stared confusedly at Emma. What da-

"Shit! I totally forgot," how could I have forgotten? It was Friday afternoon chemistry, I was a space case from all the chemical equations swamped in my brain, but crap! How could I have forgotten about Jared asking me out?

"Well, luckily for you, I don't have anything planned all of Saturday, so you and I are going…Shopping!" A shrill, girly squeal erupted from Emma and I covered my ears in response.

The teacher instantly glared in our direction and aimed a 'ssssh' at us, and we stared back to the jumble of hydrochloric acid and sodium nitrate equation we were working on.

"I just can't get this shit. Why the hell did I choose chem? Next time I try to do something so stupid, smack me one, okay? Anyway. As I was saying," Emma had an amazing talent of being able to hiss a full conversation at me while barely moving her mouth- ingenious girl, "Sass and I are taking you shopping and then we'll get our little Kimmy ready for her big night! I think your mommy wants to chip in too!"

I groaned at that. My mother was more a teenager than me, and she revelled in bonding with my best friends.

I huffed, but shot her a look which said, 'I don't really want to, but I appreciate that I could use some help' and she snickered lightly.

The bell rang, signalling the end of an intense and wonderful week for me. I rose from my chair, stretched my arms high above my head in an attempt to relieve the stress of an hour's worth of chemistry.

I didn't mind shopping, but putting Sass, Emma AND my mother into the equation, well let's just say the reaction could compete with that of mixing hydrochloric acid and barium- no one has done it and no one would dare to do it.

Aww crap. I just realised;

I'm in for a world of pain.

…….

"Kim! Get up this instant. We have…nine hours to transform you and you WILL NOT waste the time in bed! Get up now."

I felt a cold rush of air, as the blankets were lifted from my body, my head hit the mattress as a pillow was whisked out from under me and three pairs of hands went to grab for my wrists and ankles.

"Leamme 'lone. Go'way.." I mumbled sleepily. Why do the God's hate me so?

"KIM!" three voices chorused too loud for eight o'clock on a Saturday morning.

Stupidly, I just realised there was no way that they'd give up. Basically, I was coming out of this bed come hell or high water- with my permission or not.

"Alright. ALRIGHT! I'm gettin' up."

My limbs were dropped and bounced with a thump back onto the mattress.

I got a swift smack to the butt, "Up now girly, or I'm getting a bucket full of ice. And I mean it."

I scrambled and made it in time to lock them out of the bathroom, thank God.

After I had a soothing shower, chucked some clothes on and after insisting that I get to eat something prior to leaving, my mother had piled us into the back seat of her Volvo and we set off for Port Angeles.

…

Two hours and four distinctly abhorrent renditions of 'hit me baby one more time', we were mulling around the shops, and when I say mulling, I mean speeding through the centre, terrorising sales assistants and buying enough crap that would feed entire third world countries.

We all held at least four brightly emblazoned carry bags, filled with jeans t-shirts, flowy tops, shorts, necklaces, bracelets, makeup, you name it, one of us at least, had it.

The girls and my mum settled on a new pair of dark denim, high waisted jeans, a button up linen shirt and six inch killer black heels for me. I wholeheartedly agreed with the outfit, not too revealing, nor slutty but at the same time, not too prudish.

The girls had done good. After a successful shopping trip, mum treated us to a gelato and a chair for 30 minutes- I know, generous right? Then we were whisked back to the car, the three of them chatting about how to do my hair.

What the hell was I, barbie? For god's sake. It honestly sounded as though I was one of those giant barbie heads they planned to make up and primp until absolutely perfect.

…

It was nearly five o'clock, Jared would be here to pick me up soon, and they were finally finished.

I had to admit, I looked really good. The girls and mum had done well to primp, pull, tweak and dress me perfectly for my first date with Jared.

I head the distinct tinkle of the doorbell and three squeaks of triumph could be heard in chorus.

They all made their way down the staircase, me following, and said hi to Jared, upon which he looked very confused as they waved hi/bye and walked out the door past him.

I have a feeling he was just about to do the gentlemanly thing and introduce himself to my mother, who was standing to the side looking as if she was going to burst if she didn't take a drag of air into her lungs anytime soon, when I walked the rest of the way down the stairs and our eyes met.

A slow smile spread across his face, in which my face did the same in response.

We must have looked at each other as I stepped closer and closer for at least five minutes, until my mother rudely interrupted us by clearing her throat.

Jared's eyes looked slightly surprised, as if he had just realised someone else was still in the room, until he grabbed my right hand with his left, and held the other out to my mother as he walked up to her, pulling me with him.

"Ma'am. I'm Jared," his seductively husky voice sent shivers down my spine, and apparently down my mother's too.

"Jared, it's wonderful to meet you. Kimmy's told me so much about you. You're even more handsome than she said!"

Oh God. Why do you do this to me?

My mother had to be the most embarrassing mother on the face of the earth- Kimmy? Even more handsome than I said?!

Jared chuckled. "I'll have her home at around 10pm, that okay?"

"Stay out as long as you like kids. Enjoy yourselves. Live a little. Jared, teach my Kimmy not to be so mature…"

"Mum!"

"Right. Sorry. I'm going. Lovely to meet you Jared." My mother finally exited the room, thank all that's good and holy.

We walked out the door, still hand in hand, and as he opened my door for me, I noticed he was wearing dark jeans and a blue button down shirt- very nice. Out of the ordinary, from his usual cut off jeans and no shirt.

Although, I had absolutely no problem whatsoever with the no shirt thing.

No problem at all…

"Kim, have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?"

"uh, uhm, no.."

"Well, you do. You absolutely took my breath away coming down those stairs," He leaned over through the now closed car door's window and placed a soft kiss to my surprised lips.

I sighed in content, and he released my lips all too quickly and made his way round to the driver's side.

When I settled back into my seat, I jumped slightly at his silent entrance, as he was now sitting next to me and had his keys in the ignition of his aged Toyota ute.

"That was quick!"

"You have no idea," Jared returned and averted his eyes to the road.

We drove in a comfortable silence, apart from when Jared shot the odd 'get to know you' style question at me randomly.

I think it was possible to say that Jared now knew more about me than Sass or Emma, or even my mum knew about me.

He knew every detail from my childhood, my dreams, aspirations, fears, hates, loves and even about the time when my grandpa died and I hid in my cubbyhouse for two days, everyone in town searching madly for me.

In return I got details about Jared, his mum and dad, and even Alyssa.

He seemed to love her very much- they were very close.

"I always wanted a little brother or sister," I sighed wistfully.

"All only children wish that, and in return the one's with little siblings wish to be an only child. I never really got that though- Alyssa and I are pretty close. I would do anything for her and I know she'd do the same for me."

"That must be so nice. I always felt lonely as a child. I had everything, materially speaking, but I always wished there was someone to share those extra special secrets with, or blame my pranks on. Not that I ever did anything naughty- I'm too much of a good girl."

We laughed together, until finally I realised- I had no idea what we were doing. We had been in the car for a while and now, I was starting to get curious.

"Jared, where are we going?"

"Surprise my lovely, gorgeous girlfriend," Jared smiled back sweetly.

Oh my.

So that was how he wanted it.

I leaned over further, across the gear shift and put my hand on his knee. I even pouted.

"Jared, please, _please, _tell me where we're going?"

"I, uh, uhm," Jared gulped, and I watched his Adam's apple bounce nervously, "oh, you win you wicked witch. There's a nice restaurant in Port Angeles, and after that, I thought maybe we could come back here and walk along the beach?"

"Sounds perfect."

He really was the perfect guy.

……

The moon was high and bright, shining upon them as they strolled across first beach, hand in hand, shoes off.

Kim tenderly leant her head on Jared's shoulder as they walked.

"Thank-you so much for tonight Jared. It really was magical."

"Hey, no worries. Kim, I hope you know that I really, really like you, and well, I want to spend as much time as I can with you."

"I really like you too, Jared."

"Uh, Kim?" She nodded her head in response, rubbing her cheek on his warm shoulder.

"Kim, listen, I'm, that is, I think I'm-" A howl sounded.

Jared's eyes looked pained as Kim looked up into his face.

He tore his eyes away and his head whipped around towards the dark edge of the woods, as if gazing towards something.

Kim thought she saw a rustle not too far from them, and as she turned back to Jared, she noticed that he was trembling slightly.

"Kim, do you trust me?"

"What?! I.."

"Do you trust me?"

"yes, of course Jared, but-"

He dug his keys out of his pocket and held them out to her.

"Get in my car and drive home. I'll get the car another time. I'm sorry but, I- I really gotta go."

"Again? Jared this is silly, what's wrong, tell me!?"

"Kim, just go! I'll talk to you tomorrow okay? And Kim?"

"Yeah?" I responded dejectedly and confused.

"Don't stop until you get home."

"I-" Kim looked for any sign of what was going on in Jared's eyes, but they weren't focused, so she just replied, "I'll talk to you tomorrow. Thanks Jared. Be safe."

Kim turned and walked back up to the parking area, and turned around when she got to the car, saw Jared with a half wave and anxious look on his face, turned to put the keys in the ignition, then looking for another sign of Jared, realised he was already gone.

_This is the second time he's done this. What is up with this boy? A wolf howls and he's off??_

…….


	22. Chapter 22

Ok. This particular chapter isn't my fave, but I like 23, which I just posted also. See? I kept my promise- now keep your side of the deal my good readers- reviews! Constructive criticism would help- I write for you and you need to tell me if I'm doing something totally off track. 

I'm off to Japan for the next three weeks, so I won't be replying soon, sorry! Well enjoy! 

…………_._

_Get in the car and go._

_I can't! _

_Get in the goddamn car, girl._

_Shuttup. You shouldn't even be talking. You're in my head!_

_Didn't your mother always tell you to think before you act? I'm the one who controls that stupid. Listen to me; get into the car. Close the door. Put the keys into the ignition and turn them. Drive to Jared's and pick him up for school. You're his girlfriend now, remember? That did actually happen…_

_Oh my god, you're right. We're practically official..._

_Stop acting like a fifteen year old love-struck teen Kim!_

_Okay. I can do this. We're going out. So why am I still nervous?_

_Because he ran off last night, leaving with you his car! Whatever he ran off for must've been important._

_What the hell else is important than the car?!_

_Boy stuff. _

_Boy stuff? Pssh. Are you serious? That's the best you could come up with?_

_Teenage boy stuff. Very secretive._

_Oh god. How naïve are you?_

_What do you want?! I'm only 18!_

_Get in the car._

_What's he hiding from me?_

_Get in the car._

_It better not be something like drugs._

_Get in the car. _

_I couldn't deal with that. What is it? What if it's another girl? I knew I wasn't good enough for him. I'm just plain old boring Kim. He's…Jared Thail. I'm basically failing English for him! He's a God!_

_GET IN THE CAR!_

I can do this.

The familiar ornate door came into view as I stepped quietly up the porch steps. I almost ran back down the steps and straight back into the car…but I lifted my hand up and knocked, slowly and loudly.

Jared looked straight at me through half closed eyelids and a hand scratching at his head in confusion.

"Kim?"

"Who else you dope?"

"Oh! I, uh.."

"I,um, brought your car back. I thought maybe we could go to school together? And then maybe you could explain the whole 'do a runner' on Kim every time we go out thing?" I asked hopefully.

Jared's eyes opened wide, a look of pain filtering through his gorgeous, soulful hazel eyes.

His voice sounded strained, "Kim, look, I'm exhausted. Can we save it for later?"

"Fine. But I will know."

Jared chuckled, a deep rumble from his chest. "Wow, where did the aggressive, independent Kim come from?"

Kim blushed a deep rosy red, "oh! I'm, I'm sorry Jared. I didn't mean to sounds so rude.. I just.."

Jared took a few shuffling steps forward and grabbed Kim gently around the waist, bringing their bodies close together, and wrapped her in a stifling hug.

Kim stood there, revelling in the safe and secure feeling of being hugged tightly in Jared's embrace, but soon became aware of the inhuman temperature he was running.

"Jared! You're so hot!"

Another chuckle sounded, making Kim vibrate alongside Jared's bare, and very warm chest. "I take it that you meant my body temperature? Not that I don't find myself a particularly attractive guy…"

She whacked him lightly, blushing at the comment.

"You know what I meant."

"Yeah, I did. It's genetic…my uh, great grandfather had the same thing. I run on a higher body temp than most people. No worries. Not sick or anything, I promise."

"Oh."

Silence resounded, until Jared cleared his throat and moved slightly away from Kim, only to pull her surprised form into his arms, bridal style and hurried up the stairs to his room.

There were homework pages, textbooks, and broken pens? Littered throughout his room. Jared dumped Kim onto the comfy bed and came down heavily beside her, laying on his stomach and exhaling rather loudly.

"Won't your parents mind?" Kim whispered.

"Nah, mum and dad love you. They don't care. Plus, Kim, I hope you know, I'd never disrespect you. You deserve so much more."

Jared's eyes turned serious, in all their exhausted glory. Kim looked down, fiddling with Jared's fingers, entwined with her own.

"And anyway. I'm too much of a mumma's boy to do something that'd upset my mum."

Kim giggled and made her way to lay her head on top of Jared's warm, bare back, sighing comfortably as they breathed in tandem.

They stayed that way for a while, until they heard the distant opening and closing of cupboard, and the sound of the kettle boiling downstairs.

Jared flipped swiftly onto his back, bringing Kim's body closer to his own. Jared reached out and tucked a soft strand of hair behind her ear, and leaned down to her lips. They became one, twisting their bodies into a sitting position, Kim comfortably seated in Jared's lap as they continued their tender moment.

Finally, they both broke away, breathing heavily.

Jared muttered something about 'blasted school' and 'stupid shower' and placed a swift kiss to Kim's forehead before ambling towards the upstairs bathroom.

When they finally walked down stairs, hand in hand and Jared freshly showered, as they sat down at the kitchen table, Rebecca brightly greeted Kim and asked how many pancakes she'd like.

Kim shyly told her just one, and silently motioned a thank-you toward Jared's mother.

Kim thought it oddly wonderful that Jared's mum was so comfortable as to be making her breakfast on a school day, not having seen Kim enter the house, no uncomfortable questions or awkward small talk required.

They ate breakfast and filled the silence with comfortable chatter until 8.30 when Jared and Kim had to leave for school.

Kim thanked Rebecca as she headed out the door, happy with her morning so far.

……..

This morning had been amazing. Apart from the fact that Jared was still keeping something from me.

Kim's silent thoughts were interrupted.

"KIM!"

_Awww shit._

"Yes Sass dearest best friend in the world?"

"Don't you try to butter me up girly. We have some serious issues. What ever happened to mates over dates?"

Emma piped up of course, "bros over hoes?"

"Emma, I think that one only applies to guys."

"Oh. It was worth a try."

"Both of you, shut up. Stop trying to distract me from scolding Kim. As I was saying, Kim I called last night. Where were you? With Jared. I tried to text you this morning. Where were you? With Jared. What am I supposed to do to communicate with you? For the love of God girl, I needed to speak with you!"

I smiled sheepishly, knowing full well she was right.

"Sorry Sass. I just…got caught up in the moment you know? You do it all the time with your 'dick of the month'!"

The girls were slightly giggly at my choice of words. So I decided to leave it. Anyway. What was it you wanted to talk to me about so urgently that I should've been pulled away from Jared?"

"Jared." Sass stated matter of factly, while I stood there in disbelief.

"You wanted me to tell Jared to go home, so I could talk to you, about him?"

"YE-"

I held my hand up. "Say no more you deranged child. I'll tell you. Not because your logic makes sense, but because I've gone all girly and giggly since we started going out."

"You're official!?" Emma squealed.

"Practically I suppose.." I trailed off, unsure of how 'official', official was.

"Alright. Spill the beans, don't hold back and start gushing about how amazingly wonderful he is and how incredibly lucky a girl you are to have him."

"WELL..."

…….


	23. Chapter 23

_Three weeks later…_

"Jared! This is the third time this week! What aren't you telling me? Are you in some sort of trouble? Is it drugs? If it's drugs Jared, I swear I'll smack you one. You can't go to jail! You're too young. I won't allow it. If it's Sam Uley and Paul, I swear I'll hang them. The nearest oak, I swear to God I'll do it!"

I was near hysteric.

It was Saturday, and this _was_ the third time this week. He runs off in the middle of anything. I swear if I didn't know any better he was running a drug syndicate from La Push.

However, I knew better and that idea was laughable, only because La Push is just about the safest place I know.

We don't even lock our front door for God's sake!

Jared looked pained. Every time he did this, it was the same;

I'd ask what was wrong.

He'd say he'd find the right time to tell me, but this wasn't it.

He runs away into the woods.

I fret. For at least five hours.

He turns up at school looking more exhausted than the night before.

I honestly don't know what's up with him. I feel like I should be protecting him from whatever trouble he's gotten himself into, but he won't tell me a word.

Every time he leaves, he looks pained, like someone has just stabbed him with a fork, not that it would be easy, I mean, he's got pretty tough skin.

Pretty tough everything actually.

I was getting really worried. I know I sounded paranoid, but he won't tell me what's wrong and it only seems to be getting worse. The falling asleep in class, skipping days of school, leaving in the middle of a date.

It was just getting frustrating. He knew everything about me, and I thought I knew the same of him. It's just this one thing, whatever it is.

His lips are sealed so tight, I just worry that it's serious trouble.

I sighed, looking into his eyes, truly pained and anxious.

I averted my eyes to the worn carpet at the end of his bed.

"Go on. I'll talk to you later," I resigned dejectedly. There was nothing I could do to stop it, so I suppose I just have to let him do whatever it is.

"Kim, I-"

"Hurry up, before I change my mind and tell you to bugger off."

"You're amazing. And I will tell you, when-"

"When the time is right. Yeah yeah. Go on."

He reached his warm hand to my chin, lifted it gently and pecked my lips for not nearly long enough.

"I love you Kim."

My heart stopped beating, and when I looked towards his direction, it was too late.

He was already out the door.

……

I made my way down the creaky old stairs of Jared's house, running my hand along the polished banister as I thought about his words.

_I love you_

Was it just a figment of my imagination?

_I love you_

Weren't we too young for this?

_I love you_

Who am I kidding? I love him. I loved him from the very first moment I saw him. I knew he was special.

The doorbell pulled me from my thoughts. From the kitchen, I heard Rebecca faintly call, "Kim, can you get that? I've just got my hands in cookie dough!"

I hurried along to hallway and swung open the door, revealing a tall man.

He was very tall, about the same height as Jared, and that was tall. He looked as if he hadn't seen the sun in years, so definitely not a native from around here. He had a friendly smile plastered onto his face, accentuating the handsome high cheekbones, underlining a pair of curiously red shaded eyes.

I was startled by the eyes. They were devil like, but I knew they couldn't be real.

Unless he was albino?

No. I don't think so.

I struggled to feel comfortable around this stranger, but swept back the hostility from my face, and proceeded to ask what he wanted.

"I only want you."

"Sorry?" I did a double take. My ears were deceiving me.

"I said, I'm new. To this neighbourhood. I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of Cloud street?" His deep baritone voice scared me, a sinister quality seeping into his words.

I blinked. That was my street.

"Uh, yeah follow this road, go left and follow that road until the dead end."

"Thank you…?

"Kim."

"Kim. Lovely to meet you." He held out a bony, pale hand.

I grasped it quickly, and let it go much quicker. I almost let out a gasp at how cold his hand was, so different in comparison to my Jared.

He turned away, and when he got to the gate, turned for a brief half wave and left as quickly as he had come.

When I turned around, I jumped in surprise, still a little shell shocked from the strange guy.

"Sorry to startle you. Who was at the door sweetheart?"

"Uh, no one," I replied shakily, "just a guy looking for directions."

"Oh. Someone new in the neighbourhood perhaps?"

I nodded my head shakily, all the while wishing not.

…….

I baked with Rebecca for hours on end, and when Jared finally got home, we were just finishing up the last batch of cookies, so I grabbed one and jogged to meet him at the door.

"You're back!" My mood had brightened considerably since spending time doing some relaxing baking with Rebecca.

"Look what I have for you!" I waved the warm cookie under his nose, hoping to brighten his sullen looking face.

Jared stiffened, smacked the cookie out of my hand, and I watched in confusion as it hit the floor, crumbling over the carpet.

He pulled me roughly towards him.

"Ouch! Jared, what the hell's wrong with you?"

He brought my right hand close under his nose. He winced and almost looked green under his dark skin.

I took my hand back, sniffing it, and finding nothing.

"What's wrong? What's with the sniffing?"

It was then I noticed he was trembling slightly.

"Rebecca!" I called out to his mother.

"REBECCA!" I called out louder as the trembling grew to fully blown shaking, his body blurring slightly at the edges.

Rebecca finally came dashing out into the hall, and upon noticing Jared's current state, grabbed my other wrist and pulled me behind her small form.

"Jared. Get out now. I'm calling Sam."

_Did she seriously tell him to get out?_

I watched on in confusion and he raced straight back out the front door, it closing with a resounding smash.

"Rebecca, what's wrong with Jared? You're scaring me."

She was mumbling to herself, pre occupied. As she went in one direction to find the phone, I went to the front window, drawing back to curtain to take a peek outside, and saw nothing.

Alarm bells went off in my head, I anxiously hurried away from the window, in search of Rebecca, but jumped out of my skin when the door opened again and banged against the wall.

I backed up until I was standing flat against the hallway wall. This day was turning out to be very strange, and just got worse when I giant half naked guy waltzed right up to me and took my right hand, curiously bringing it up to his nose, the very same way Jared had.

Only difference was, he didn't wince or flinch from my hand, just stared intensely into my eyes.

I had to crane my neck backwards to get a good view of exactly who it was.

Sam Uley.

…….

Sam's voice filled the room with authority, "Are you very sure that is all you did, they were the only people you had contact with today?"

We sat around in the Thail's living room, Sam looking entirely out of place on the small furniture. I looked down into my mug pensively, frowning at his choice of words this time.

"Well, I answered the door to a guy who wanted directions today. We…shook hands."

Sam's calm exterior dropped at this, he shot up and went to the door, locking it safely and then came back to us. He took the mug from my hands, pulled me up into his arms and said, "it's not safe for you here. You have to come and stay with Emily and I."

And with that, he nodded to Rebecca, who was watching both quietly and anxiously from afar, and we were out the door, Sam not even breathing hard as he jogged with me in his arms around the block to a quaint wooden house, with a woman standing on the porch.

…….


	24. Chapter 24

**I'm baaaaack! I really wasn't happy with this chapter- it's just a filler, but I wanted to get the point across that Kim was staying with the Uley's. So It's really long to make up for the fluffy filler content. Don't stone me, but it was sorta necessary- it sets up everything for the next chapter which hopefully will be both as long and much better and more exciting. **

**By the way- I'm going to be trying for longer chapters to get this wrapped up quicker- the story has kinda dragged on and im sorry- I hate that too. PLUS I'm on holidays, and therefore have nothing to do- apart from write! Review!**

………………………

Sam gently let me slip from his grasp, then continued forward to greet the woman standing at the top of the stairs. He took her tenderly in his arms, and tilted her head up for a kiss. That was when I noticed the scars marking her face. She really was beautiful, but the three jagged lines that ran down her cheeks, marring and distorting her smile were clear, and I then remembered who she was.

About a year after I came to La Push, a big scandal was brought into the light. Sam Uley had basically been about to marry Leah Clearwater, but her cousin from another nearby reservation came down and he had fallen for her instead. I was told that the two cousins were practically sisters, until Sam had dumped one for the other. Emily Young ran into the woods after an argument with the pair and was mauled by a bear, leaving the horrific scars.

Emily and Sam Uley have been together ever since.

It was a sad story, with a mainly happy ending, aside from poor Leah Clearwater's perspective.

From what I've heard, she doesn't really speak to either of them anymore.

My open mouthed staring must have caught their attention, because Sam was now beckoning me up the stairs, onto the handcrafted wooden porch, beaming proudly at his wife.

"Kim, this is my wife, Emily. Emily, this is Kim, Jared's girlfriend."

A kind smile graced Emily's face, her beauty outweighing the marks on her face. I stepped forward and held my hand out politely, only to be pulled into a fierce hug.

She whispered into my ear, "It's so nice to finally meet you. Welcome to the pack."

I pulled back slightly and shot her a quizzical look.

To finally meet me? The pack?

She took my hand and led me inside to a warm house with a wonderful smell of baking cookies gracing the air.

We stopped in the room where the smell was strongest, and was startled when a warm pair of strong arms snaked around my middle and lifted me from the ground.

I knew instantly it was Jared and attempted to turn myself in his embrace to ask if he was okay.

Sensing my struggle to see his face, Jared put me down and I rounded on him immediately.

"You want to tell me what that was back there? Are you alright? You scared me stiff! I thought you were going to have a fit or something!"

"I, uh-" Jared blanched, obviously surprised by my outburst. The silence was broken by light snickers coming from further inside the room. It was then I realised we weren't alone. Woops.

Sam and Emily stood together, kind and knowing smiles on their faces, Paul and two other huge Quileute boys sat at a table with mismatched chairs, holding their laughter in.

I shot a pointed glare at Paul who merely stopped attempting to keep in his laughter and basically started rolling around on the floor laughing.

Once the tears had subsided and a, "Paul are you finished giggling like a girl?" was asked, I fully took in the situation. I was at Sam and Emily Uley's house and they meant for me to stay.

Why? I have no idea...But if had anything to do with why Jared is always disappearing, I was hanging around as long as it took for Emily to divulge the secret.

She looked kind enough to crack within 2 days. I'd know what's going on by then, I'm sure.

"So, this is the pack?"

Five boys looked around at each other, alarmed, whereas Emily merely let out a short laugh and replied, "Yes, these four are always around my house, trampling mud on my shiny floors and breaking my vases-"

Paul shot up, looking mildly sheepish, "I _said _I was sorry!" with cookie crumbs flying from his mouth.

"Paul, sit down and don't talk with your mouth full, how are we supposed to find you a girl when you act like a dog?" Emily shot sharply at him.

"He _IS_ a dog," Jared murmured from beside me. To which I promptly poked him in the side for being rude, however he shifted and caught me in a hug, my arms and poking fingers effectively trapped in his giant arms.

He and I both knew at that moment that I had forgiven him. So I nestled into his embrace, enjoying the warmth.

"Kim, this is Embry and Jacob, they're both in the year under you, and are regulars at my house. Boys say hello."

"Hey Kim, it's nice to meet you," The boy, Embry I think, got up and offered his hand to me, upon which I shook it, curious at the warm hand I encountered.

_Just like Jared's. I wonder if they're distantly related. They certainly look similar…wait, they all look similar- 6 foot plus, muscles of steel, incredibly gorgeous…Jared more so._

Jacob merely waved a friendly large hand and grabbed for another cookie with the other.

Sam spoke up, "Look, Kim, we have reason to believe that the guy you opened the door to today may have been looking to kidnap or hurt you. We don't want to alarm you, or cause your parents any harm or stress, so Emily and I were thinking it'd be best if you stayed with us for a few days, until things settle down maybe."

I was absolutely shocked. After me? What was this, a bad afternoon cop show? And I know there are no real cops on the reservation, but the police chief over in Forks should surely be handling things like this, not Sam…But the concern seemed genuine. And I couldn't help but become slightly afraid. I snuggled back into Jared's warm chest, shivering slightly at this revelation.

I turned my face to Jared.

"You think it'd be a good idea for me to stay here?"

A tense, slight nod.

"Because you have reason to believe some stranger may kidnap me?"

Another nod.

"You're not going to give me much more information are you?"

A terse shake of the head. Was I a child? There was something they weren't divulging and it was making me anxious.

I huffed, and slowly turned my head back to Sam, "Alright, if it'll keep my parents safe, but what am I going to tell them? Mum would probably freak."

Emily pitched in at this point, "To raise money for the primary school, we're having a bake sale the day after next. You can cook right?"

I regarded Emily with an 'are you serious' look and nodded my head emphatically. I loved baking and it would take my mind off things.

"Perfect! Call your mother and tell her you're staying with me for the next two nights, Jared will run you back to your place for some clothes and we'll get started."

I was happy about this plan. Emily was a lovely person and I would enjoy spending time getting to know her.

She took me to the phone, where I called my mother at work. She was happy that I had found a friend in the local 'protector's' wife and she practically told me to live there for the next week if I wanted. Everyone in town knew Emily and Sam to be amongst the nicest people here on the reservation and regarded Sam's job within the tribal council with the utmost respect for someone so young.

So Jared and I drove over to my house, I hastily selected a few outfits and necessities, shoved them into a carry bag and we were off to Emily's again.

When I got back, Emily and I started baking almost immediately while the boys sat around the table, arguing about some NFL match rather loudly.

Until they kept trying to pinch our freshly baked items and Emily shooed them out.

Emily and I talked, easy going chatter flowing throughout the entire day.

"So, you and Jared have become pretty close pretty fast.."

"Mhhm."

"I just wondered how it didn't happen sooner."

I was caught off guard with this statement. I hadn't told anyone but Sass and Em about my feelings for Jared prior to us being together.

"Well, if you really want to know…"

Emily chuckled wisely, "Yes I really want to know!"

"Well, you have to swear not to tell anyone, even Sam, because it's really embarrassing and I haven't told anyone but my best friends, and my mum sorta accidentally knows, so it's not ahuge secret I guess, but still-"

"Kim! Get to the point girl."

"Alright! Sheesh, who knew you'd be so impatient! I liked Jared from the first moment I saw him."

"But that must've been, what, two years ago now?"

"Three actually. I know, pathetic huh? That's what my friends said too."

I began to knead the scone dough a little harder, remembering how hung up I was.

"Kim, when you meet someone as special as Jared," a flour and dough covered hand rested on mine, "it's hard not to be pathetic and hung up. Trust me, take it from someone who knows."

I regarded Emily with surprise. "but I thought.."

"So did everyone else. You must have only heard about my love life from the village gossips, I suppose?"

I guiltily looked down at my feet, and went back to pounding the dough.

"Well, you're a part of the pack now, I suppose I prefer I be the one to tell you.

My cousin Leah and I were best friends, like almost sisters. She came up to the reservation I lived on every summer break , until one year. Her family turned up in the car, I watched on expectantly, but to no avail, my best friend was not in the car.

My aunt told me Leah had found a 'male friend' and was going to get to know him better over the summer, so she'd come up in the last two weeks of holidays.

I remember feeling so upset with her for leaving me. This was tradition, and to break it for a guy? Not cool.

I eventually got off my jealous high horse and decided to surprise her by driving down to the Quileute reservation to pick her up and bring her back to my place.

When I got there though, I was utterly embarrassed to find them in the midst of making out, so I hid for five minutes or so, until the 'male friend' turned to leave. And that's when I saw Sam.

I was instantly jealous of my cousin for finding such an amazing guy. He was gorgeous, tall dark and handsome to a T and it was obvious he was head over heels for her. Before he could catch sight of me, I hid further into the shadows, I know, pathetic huh? I caught my breath and held back the green monster trying to escape from inside of me. I mean, this utterly gorgeous guy had both stolen my cousin and my heart. It was painful, and I was so jealous, but I walked in and grabbed Leah. I listened for a whole hour while she gushed about how amazing Sam was, Sam this, Sam that, Sam her soul mate.

They lasted for a while, but nowhere near as long as anyone expected- they all thought Sam was going to pop the question, but he left her, without an explanation, nothing. Her heart was ripped to shreds and I felt to ad for her. He was obviously too good to be true.

I came down to her the summer after, and happened to run into the son of a bitch that ripped my precious cousins heart out and trampled it with dirt. However, I was shocked and horrified to find him down on his knees within ten minutes of listening to my litany of how nasty he truly was, proclaiming his love for me.

I didn't know what to do, so I ran into the woods, and y'now," She gestured to her deformed face at this point,

"But eventually, Sam got the chance to explain everything, and, I mean, it's pretty hard to resist that level of adoration.

I was still so angry with him for making me into the enemy for Leah, and we still don't speak much anymore, and I hate it. But Sam and I were meant to be. He is my other half."

As Emily finished her story, she got back to setting out trays, ready to go into the oven, but I couldn't help but analyse the situation.

"Emily, what did Sam explain? What made it all happy families that you decided to be with him, even though you knew it would break Leah's heart to lose a boyfriend as well as a sister?"

I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth, and sure enough, she winced.

"Kim, there's something Jared will tell you by the end of the week, I'm sure of it, that will change everything. Sam had to tell me the same thing. IT's hard, really hard, but just remember he loves you for you. You two are perfect."

I pressed on, cheekily trying to extract the secret, like a robber from a glass case, trying not to let Emily know what I was trying to carefully do.

"But what could change something, your situation and mine, so dramatically..?"

"Well, the fact that…um."

"Yes? I mean it doesn't matter really," Pssh, this was the most important thing on my life list right now, right before finding out why I had a creepy stalker, "I'm just curious is all."

"Kim. I know exactly what you're trying to do," Shit, "However, I would've like some warning, or insider knowledge, so how's about this; tomorrow, we'll go to the library."

The library? I tried to extract Jared's innermost secret and she wanted me to go to the public library?

"You should read up on some of the tribal legends, they're really interesting and help you understand the tribe mentality."

Ok. So maybe there might be something after all… SCORE!

A thought pushed forward though, "Hey Emily, could I go out with my two friends after the library?"

"No way." Emily stated bluntly. "My amazing husband's strict orders, you are not to be without one of us or off our property without us…however, I do have an idea, why don't you call them and they can spend the afternoon here? I cook for 5 hungry guys already who eat twice the normal person, making two more normal portions is no hassle at all. They can have dinner then go home and you get to spend time with them, how does that sound?"

I grumbled. I hated being locked up, but nodded my head in agreement anyway.

Till tomorrow; I get to see my neglected best friends AND may take another step in the direction of finding out whether Jared is running a La Push drug syndicate or if he really is helping the tribe.

**Was it less confusing this time? I REALLY tried to stay in first person. I may have slipped up, I'm not sure, but I hope it was better… Review**


	25. Chapter 25

Despite the reason I was sleeping in the Uley's guest bedroom, I actually managed to catch up on some much needed sleep. Their house sends off some sort of weird, but peaceful aura…strange, but hey, anything that gets me extra sleep.

Acknowledging that Sam and Emily are a blissfully married couple who consistently seem to have a steady stream of overgrown teenaged boys, I dressed silently in comfortable jeans and a t-shirt, and crept downstairs to the kitchen.

After all the baking we managed to get done yesterday, I was confident I knew my way around Emily's kitchen well enough so not to cause her a coronary from a fork put in the china cupboard, or a wooden spoon sitting in a colander.

A sharp knock at the door caught my attention while I was frying bacon and I hurried to answer it, only to find three half asleep boys standing on the other side, one being my obviously exhausted boyfriend.

You know what? Too bad. He won't tell me where he's been and what he's been up to, he isn't getting one shred of sympathy.

_You show 'em Kimmy. No sympathy at all. I'm not going to make their lives easier._

_Yeah. A big hot breakfast, a kiss, a reassuring hug and a smiling face over breakfast._

None whatsoever. _Good work you big sappy girlfriend._

Once they were settled in their seats, after a whisper-yelled scolding about waking Sam and Emily, I put a buffet of food out for them and the dug in straight away. Coffee was fresh and black, just how they needed it.

Sam and Emily eventually made their way downstairs, both throwing an appreciative grin Kim's direction.

"You guys aren't going to tell me anytime soon are you?" I questioned, glancing at all five faces, mostly astonished at my boldness.

Sam chanced a glare in Jared's direction, Emily following suit.

Jared began, "Sam wants me to tell you, so I guess-" A howl.

Another goddamn howl.

Jared winced, eyes still smarting from the lack of sleep, but nonetheless, scraped his chair back from the table with the others, settled a kiss on my forehead, mumbled a 'sorry babe' and loped gracefully out the door like the others.

Emily threw a sympathetic smile my way, and began to try to cheer me up. "So, Jacob's going to come with us to the library, are you pumped or what?"

"God, Emily, you sound like a 14 year old cheerleader about to go to the pep-rally. It's 7.30am on a Saturday, let me just wallow in my unknowledgeable presence." I joked, not really.

…………..

The nerd in me has to say, reading up on those legends of the La Push Quileute's was really interesting, but I still couldn't see where that fitted in with Jared. Every scenario I thought up couldn't fit all aspects of his strange behaviour. I couldn't figure him out.

Both Jacob and Emily helped me pour over the musty books, looking at me expectantly, as if I was teetering on the edge of finishing a 500-piece puzzle, but that wasn't helping.

So we decided to leave.

We went back to the house where Jacob sat outside and Emily and I continued our baking.

Finally around two, Sass and Em showed up, upon which the previously comfortable silence dissolved and the squealing of mainly two teenage girls filled the air. I left Emily to the baking while the girls and I spent some quality time together.

I felt guilty in admitting it, but since Jared, there pretty much hadn't been time for anyone else. I was guilty of negligence- these two clearly could've killed each other in my absence, thankfully though they hadn't.

However I did notice a bandage on Emma's dainty left ankle…but I wasn't even going to ask.

Sass, Emma, Emily and I sat around for hours talking, not noticing the time until Jacob poked his head through the door and warned Emily that the pack would be home after they wrapped up everything, in about forty five minutes to an hour.

Emily and I turned shocked gazes to each other. How had we not noticed the time?

So much cooking to do!

Sass sat back on the couch, chuckling about us running around like headless chickens.

Funny to note- Sass comes from a family of three girls.

Emma lived with her cousin Jacob, currently standing watch over the house outside, and both Emily and I were involved with big guys. We fully understood the situation of only an hour to cook and five hungry gigantic mouths and appetites to feed.

Thankfully, by the time seven rolled around, Emily was just taking the chickens out of the oven, finished plating up the vegetables, potatoes, bread and salad, Emma had finished setting the table and I was putting the finishing touches on desert.

I heard the door open and rock back on it's hinges, "Stop trying to take my damned door off the hinges!" when at least three of the five boys walked through the threshold.

All four of us started to grab dishes and bring them out to the dining table, upon where we all sat, still waiting on two of the guys; Paul and Jared.

Finally, they came noisily through the door, and into the dining room where everyone else was sitting. Jared reached down to my height and placed a pair of warm lips to my cheek, before taking the seat next to me.

Sass, who had dashed back to the kitchen for the water pitcher also came jogging through the opposite door to the dining room, and looked curiously around at the overgrown guys in the dining room, glancing over each before stopping to stare at the one still standing, still gazing with a dreamy, half awake look on his face straight back at her. Paul's eyes widened, and it was almost like watching a blind man see the sun for the first time. I felt like I had intruded on a private moment, and turned away to look at Jared uncomfortably.

Jared looked between the two, as were the rest of the dinner party, and whispered, "No freaking way." I tugged on his shirt, wanting to know what he was talking about, but at that moment, Sass chose to break the stare and walk quietly to her seat in the searing silence that engulfed the room.

Paul rushed around the table, obviously trying to help the dear maiden with beautiful mahogany hair, and reached for the water pitcher and pulled out her seat in the one motion, but ended up comically overbalancing in his haste, and come crashing down onto the floor, taking the chair, the water pitcher and a now soaking wet Sass with him.

Sass shrieked at the cold water down her top as the wind rushed out of her from having a 6 foot plus guys land on top of her under the dining table, legs a giant tangled web. Just about everyone leapt up at this, Jacob, Embry and Jared all laughing hysterically, Sam an amused but calm exterior and a horrified Emily, Emma and I both laughing and wading over the mess of tangled wet limbs to extract our friend from this highly hilarious but embarrassing spectacle.

Paul rolled off Sass eventually, practically begging forgiveness, literally on his knees and looking like he'd just run over a cute puppy.

Sass' icy demeanour presented itself.

"What the hell were you doing, you idiot?! You could've completely squished me!" I laughed at this juvenile choice of words, but regretted my own choice to laugh after an icy glare was shot in my direction.

I clasped my hand to my mouth, attempting to stifle any future giggles that may try to escape.

Sass continued her tirade of profanities and demeaning phrases at poor Paul who looked as if he was just going to sit there and take it like a little boy who'd just broken the cookie jar.

"Paul, come on, I'll drive you home," and just like that Sam and Paul left the dining room and we heard the car start up, Jacob and Embry were still rolling on the floor practically wetting themselves, and Emily took Sass up to her room to fetch some er, less soaking wet clothing.

Once they came back downstairs, and Sam had returned, minus Paul (thank god for him), we all sat back at the table and began to eat the now cool food.

Sass had no problem vocalising her issues with the guy she hadn't even met.

"What's wrong with him? Is he completely retarded? I swear I've never been so mortified! Who is it?"

Jared piped up at this, "He's an idiot, but a really nice guy, only slightly retarded, don't worry about your mortification, think about his and that's Paul."

Sass looked quizzically at me, "Paul from our PE class Paul? Mr I can do every sport better than girls but can't carry a goddamn water pitcher and pull out a chair Paul? Good god, what's wrong with him?! I've never met anyone so moronic in my life. Wait till I see him next, just wait and see.."

Sam, having now been introduced to the girls, spoke up to Sass, "I think he actually kinda likes you."

"God save me from that fate."

"C'mon Sass, Paul is actually really nice. You and he are very alike actually."

"I should strike myself down if that's the case."

"You have to admit," Jacob piped up, "that was a good ice breaker."

Oh boy, Jacob was pissing himself before he even got the end of his little joke out. It's going to be a loooong night.


	26. Chapter 26

"Emily, where are they?" I threw a dark look over at the sweet woman who had housed me for the past forty-eight hours, "Look, Jared was about to tell me last night, so why not just speed up the process a bit?"

Emily pulled the car to a stop, turned to my steely gaze and opened her mouth to say something…

Then Jacob opened the car door, breaking the spell in which she was going to divulge all secrets.

_Damn. I thought for sure she'd break._

"Morning ladies, yet again I'm on guard detail, but I'm hungry, so hurry up and get out."

I glared at Jake, who, amazingly, winced under my gaze. Surprised and proud of myself for backing my anger up with a tough stance, I let both of them off the hook, sighed and mumbled a, "Let's get this show on the road."

We, and by we I mean mostly Jake, hauled out the various platters and trays with all the delicious treats Emily and I had baked the previous days. We unwrapped all the goodies and set them up for the stall holders, me all the while thinking about my M.I.A. boyfriend.

I put on a good show, but inside, I was worried. Jared and the others had taken off last night and not come home. I knew this wasn't unusual, but I had a bad feeling.

And it's not just that. Jared is always so secretive… _and_ he runs off into the woods every ten minutes. My ideas ranged from variations of 'Batman' to 'the Joker' and the disappearing didn't help my wild imagination from suspecting a drug cartel.

I was just so confused! He wasn't lying exactly, but the blatant 'I can't tell you' on every occasion was really getting to me.

I love Jared, but how much longer can I really put up with-

Hang on! Woah…

When did like become love?

_Was_ I in love with Jared?

I'm sure my face was a mixture of emotions as I pondered silently over matters of the heart, when I was interrupted as I felt hands sliding about my waist.

Though deep in thought, I knew exactly who was wrapped around my body, and sighed with relief, knowing he was safe in my arms.

"Hey," he said tenderly and leant down to kiss me, "I only have a few, so I gotta make this quick, but, Kim, you know I love you, don't you?"

WOAH! That was unexpected.

I balked.

The words were finally coming from his mouth, words I never thought I'd actually hear.

Yes, I answered myself.

I do love him.

I smiled tenderly up at his face, looking deep into those soulful eyes and ran my hand softly along his jaw before reaching up to place a soft kiss on his lips.

"Yes Jared, and you know it's the same for me right? I mean, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be the same Kim I am today."

"I know it's the same, you have very expressive eyes," he whispered huskily into my ear, ignoring the carnival noise blaring at the two of us, "But I'd like to hear it from your own luscious lips all the same.."

"I love you, Jared Thail."

A satisfied grunt came from his as he swept me up in a kiss that left my pink toenails tingling and the fine hair at the back of my neck standing on end.

A discreet cough and clearing of a throat came from the left of me and I looked up to see who had interrupted out precious moment.

Paul.

At this moment, I could totally see Sass's motivation for castrating the moron.

He grinned, cheeky bastard.

"Sorry to interrupt this lovely moment, ladies and gents, but Jared's is desperately needed by Sam."

And with an apologetic, but promising glance sent my way, Jared was off in search of his keeper.

"And here I was thinking all teens rebelled at this slightest scent of elder authority. Tell me Paul, do you all sit and wait for Sam's beck and call?"

Paul looked confused and decided to change the topic.

"So," he leaned casually up against the closest confectionary stand, intent on inspecting his nails all of a sudden. "How's Emma?"

"Fine, " I replied warily confused.

"And uh, Sass? How is she?"

Aha. "Weeeellll…"

"Come on Kimmie, spit it out. Did I hurt her? Is she okay? She doesn't hate me does she?"

I had finished my teasing. "She's fine Paul, maybe thinks you're a bit of an idiot, but from the string of moronic guys she's gone out with, that's probably to be expected."

Paul's fists clenched at his side as he looked up at me, teeth slightly gritted.

"String of guys?"

"She's hot, what'd you expect?"

"Yeah I know, she's gorgeous. The reincarnation of beauty itself, a goddess even. But she probably won't go anywhere near me now," Paul paraded on, somewhat mournfully.

I shook my head at the suddenly lovesick boy, hiding a grin as I did so.

"Well, I happen to know she's on this very ground…and I also happen to know, that since it's still early morning for sleeping beauty herself, she could do with a wakeup call from a friend called expresso…"

"Really? Coffee?" Paul perked up, all ears now.

"Yup. Can't get to 11 o'clock without one..and there's a bit of a line, so I'd hurry if I were you.."

I was swept up in a bone crushing hug, then quickly set on my feet.

Paul yelled over his shoulder while hurrying to the coffee stand, "Thanks Kimmy, I owe you one!"

Man, he was soooo whipped.

…….

"Thanks. Real solid girl power." A voice stated, disgruntled, in my left ear.

I turned around to find Sass, coffee in one hand and Paul's ear in the other, and absolutely could not help but burst into laughter.

While I giggled my way through five minutes, she stood, glaring directly at me, practically willing daggers at my chest via mental telepathy. Every now and again, Paul would move a little, only to have his throbbing red ear twisted unnaturally further as Sass' French polished nail bit into it.

Once the laughter had ceased, aside from a few giggles here and there, she took a long drag from the coffee. It must've been how she likes it- strong and black, because she let a blissful sigh escape and released Paul's poor ear from its jailor. He stood from his bent position by Sass' side, rubbed his ear and gazed on at his own personal Mona Lisa.

Sass and I begun to talk, but when Sass realised that Paul's tall figure was _still _standing over us, she turned slowly and threw a menacing glare in his direction.

"_Must_ you stand there while we are having a conversation-"

A howl rang through the woods.

The secret call that drew Jared into the woods to do…whatever it was that he still hadn't told me he does…

"SSh!"

Uh oh. Paul just shushed Sass. This wasn't going to be-

"Did YOU just SHUSH me?!" Sass' biting cold tone rang shrill as she interrogated Paul and pointed a finger at him.

"Ssh!" resounded again, uttered from the unlucky Paul's lips.

"He totally just shushed me, didn't-" Sass was cut off by Paul roughly grabbing the hand pointed at his muscled chest, pulling Sass way beyond 'personal box' limits and took her lips in a hungry kiss.

She responded by wrapping her arms around his neck.

I clapped, jumping up and down on the spot, squealing like a little girl on Christmas day.

All too soon, however, he broke off, and reluctantly, looking back at least three separate intervals, leaving a stunned Sass gaping at him as he loped into the thick brush of the edge of the woods.

"I- um. Did that just happen?" Sass questioned, confused and dazed by the passionate kiss from the number one on her hit list at the moment.

I wore a shit-eating grin on my face and nodded vigorously.

Sass buried her face in her hands and stumbled over to where I was standing.

"Kim," she whispered, leaning her head on my shoulder, "I like him so much."

Well. If the kiss didn't surprise me, this sure as hell did. I was utterly astonished. Didn't she hate Paul? With the fire of a thousand burning suns and all that? This was a revelation…

Suddenly, before I had truly grasped the concept of Sass and Paul, he head shot up and she began to power walk…towards the woods.

"Sass? Where are you going??" I yelled.

"I have to tell him!" she threw back over her shoulder, a joyous tone ringing through her voice.

Aw shit.

"Sass! Wait, come back. You can't follow him!" before I knew it, my feet flew forward of their own volition, chasing Sass as she wandered deeper and deeper into the forest in search of Paul. She began to run.

Oh god. How am I supposed to keep up with her?

The tread of her shoes became lighter as we advanced further, her pace much quicker than my own.

I slowed down, unsure of what to do and looked around me for the first time. It was silent and eerie, but deciding that finding Sass and trekking back to the carnival together would be a more wise decision, than on my own, I once again started to jog forward.

I dodged and swatted too many leafy plants to count and ended up with, I'm sure, many scratches on my bare arms and neck.

I don't know how long it was before the hysteria set in. probably about when I realised I was lost, had no idea where Paul or Sass were and I was going to be eaten by cannibals or wolves, whichever really lived in this gigantic god forsaken forest.

But then, like a beacon sent out to a lost ship, my hope was restored and the irrational fear of being eaten alive was lost. I stumbled into a clearing. Only to have the irrational fear and hope replaced by pure and utter terror when I realised I was not alone.

On the opposite side of this massive clearing devoid of any shelter or hiding places, three gigantic, and when I say gigantic, I'm not exaggerating, _huge_ wolves, or at least I supposed they were wolves, for horses were not that shaggy and tigers not that big, were advancing on a man.

Oh my god, they were going to kill him. Panic arose, and I froze, utterly still and silent, aside from the shallow breaths my body was taking, conspiring against me to get me killed.

I tried to analyse the situation with a clear head, but the clarity never came, as I watched on in fear, my eyes landed on the mans face, completely devoid of emotion, but even from this far away, as my breathing hitched, his eyes slid my way, showing the red gleam from Jared's house the other day.

It was the creepy neighbour! He was the reason I wasn't at my own home this weekend. But even then, I couldn't let him be eaten could I?

_No Kim, _the rational voice in my head reasoned. _He may be creepy, but you were brought up with better morals than that._

Yeeah. I suppose.

Our gazes locked, and at that time I became more fearful for my short-lived life than before as three gigantic snouts and six gleaming eyes whipped around to watch the intrusion.

There was a sound behind me, but I didn't dare take my gaze from the situation before me, until I heard his voice.

"Kim. Don't freak out. Just stay where you are, exactly still."

I nearly let out the tears that were building up in my eyes spill over at that moment. Not for relief, but worry and anxiety. Jared was here too? He couldn't. He was too young to die. We had to get out of here.

I looked up at him, wide eyes staring as he advanced into the scene laid out before us, three wolves, two harmless love struck teens and a crazy neighbour.

To my dismay, he stepped into the clearing, leaving me wide berth and still standing alone.

I wanted so badly to be in his arms, but something in the way he was watching the wolves and crazy man stopped me.

I settled for whisper yelling, "Jared! Jared, come back, it's dangerous. What are you doing?"

My failed attempt at calling him back seemed to strike the attention of the silent foursome across the clearing.

Before I knew what was happening, and in my disbelief, the crazy man shot up in the air, springing from the back of the huge greyish wolf to land maybe ten metres from where Jared and I were standing, only Jared seemed to react just as fast and took a running leap.

And burst!

Wait, not burst… just turn into a giant chocolate brown wolf.

Oh my god.

I stared on in shock. That did not just happen.

This had to be a dream. Or an illusion. Back track Kimmy; you were at the carnival, Paul kissed Sass, Sass ran off, you ran off after Sass…and..?

And..?

Jared turned into a wolf?

_THIS_ was what they had been hiding, wasn't it? The secrecy, the howls, the 'pack'.

It all made sense.

How could I have not put it together? After all the legend we heard about…

But they were just stories, I thought.

_Clearly not Kimmy darling._

How could he have not told me?

He had so many chances…when we were alone, at school, at his house.. he kept it from me this whole time.

My silent ministrations and accusations were cut off as a shrill scream pierced the air. Sass, a few metres to my left was looking wildly around, just as Jared-wolf pounced and tackled the man to the ground.

Oh my God he's a killer.

Sass ran to me and began pulling at my hand urgently, looking fixedly between the fight and the opposite direction- further into the woods and away from this mess.

I began to allow myself to be pulled, when suddenly out of nowhere, the crazy guy flung the Jared-wolf up and over his head, crashing him into a solid looking oak tree fifty metres away.

I pulled away from Sass' sweaty and urgent hand, starting to run across the field, blindly running towards Jared.

And I hurtled to a stop as I watched the wolf slowly regain a standing position, and yet again trot forward in my direction, speeding up when his eyes caught a hold of movement lightly behind me. I turned to watch a scene out of an action movie- the silvery grey wolf leapt in front of me, just as the guy ran in my direction (Who was this guy? He was definitely not normal, and seeing as though he was throwing wolves around, definitely not human) and they collided, sending me crashing to the ground, the wolf standing over either side of my sprawled form while another wolf approached and sank its teeth into the crazy guy from the back.

I screamed as I saw the wolf thrown into the distance by this super human crazy guy and began to seriously think I was going to die.

The guy came back at me and the greyish wolf, now in a protective stance in front of my curled body on the ground, but he too, was thrown in an almighty crash across the field against several large trees and before I knew it, he had my arm in a painful grip and he dragged me into a position where he was holding me off the ground, feet dangling, arm in excruciating pain.

"Move any closer and she's mine for eternity." His cold, menacing voice spoke softly, but all four pairs of ears pricked up as they circled us, growls and snarls emitted from each wolf.

I couldn't feel any blood in my arm by now and when I tried to relieve some of the pain by twisting in a different direction, his vice- like grip transferred to my neck.

Black sparkles started to dance in front of my eyes as I gasped for breath through the constricted airways. My one good arm clawed at his hand to no avail as I fought to stay conscious.

His hand tightened slightly, before all four wolves leaping in one swift motion, tackling him to the ground, relieving the pressure on my airways, but sending me clear across the field.

"Kim," ah Jared's voice. I must be in heaven. "Kim stay with me, you can't leave me. I love you."

And with that statement, I allowed myself to fade into the darkness, revelling in the feel of his warm, sculpted chest cradling me close.

…….


	27. Chapter 27

Pain...Immense pain... And an irritating beep, beginning to speed up.

I struggled to pry my eyelids apart, willing myself to see where I was.

I knew I wasn't in my bedroom, the bed I was laying on was much too stiff, and it smelt funny, not like the perfume mum gave me for the Christmas just gone that I often wore.

This smell made my nose feel funny. I longed for the floral scent that my room held. And so, the question remained; where was I?

Trying, in a last ditch effort, my eyes were suddenly able to pull themselves apart for a moment, long enough to watch a small black screen, bar for a bunch of numbers and a jagged line, the beep in tandem with it.

I've seen way too many re-runs of E.R. to not know what that was.

I was in hospital?

But why?

I let my eyes shut themselves again, willing the painful grainy feeling from them.

As soon as I closed them though, the memories came flooding through, horrific images flashing in the darkness as I regained the memories.

The carnival…Paul and Sass…Sass running off… _the wolves_…

The beeping sped up frantically as the recollection of today's past events haunted my mind. I remembered the crazy guy's hands wrapped in a vice like grip around my neck, and again, struggled to breathe. I flew up into a sitting position, body protesting as muscles I hadn't even known I had screamed in objection.

I struggled to breathe and then realised I was not alone in the room as I saw Jared move to my side in a flash from the uncomfortable armchair he was resting in.

Unsure of my true feelings towards him, or at least the Jared-wolf I remembered, I shrank back, trying to regain a normal breathing pattern.

"So it's not a drug cartel, is it?" I huffed out, chest on fire.

With a small crease in his forehead and a distinctly pained look to his eyes, Jared reached for my hand, , clenched into the pristine white sheets, but thought twice about it and pulled it back, scratching the back of his head in a nervous gesture.

"Seriously, Jared, wolves?" I croaked, my lungs prickling painfully.

"Yes. I'm so sorry Kim, you'll never know how sorry I am. That was not how I planned for you to find out.." he looked heartbroken. I immediately felt great remorse at shrinking back from him and reached for him with the arm that was not in a cast, but the door was thrown open at that point, shocking me and drawing my hand back.

"Ah, you're awake then. Your heart rate was up a bit, everything okay?" a middle aged lady bustled through the door and tapped a few buttons on the heart rate monitor, then turned her no-nonsense, stern face towards me.

I nodded mutely.

"Right then, back to a half lying position, none of this sitting up nonsense. That lung will not thank you for any extra pressure you put on it right now."

I started to lean backwards, but hissed in pain as I hit a tender spot on my back.

"I'm not surprised. You took quite a beating; punctured lung, a few cracked ribs, fractured radius, compound tib/fib fracture and a few bruises and scratches. I'll give you some more pain killers, just sit back and relax."

I started shaking my head, indicating that I'd prefer to stay awake and looked to Jared, who was standing quietly in the corner of the room, for help, but it was too late, she was already pushing the syringe into the IV line and I felt the cool rush of the medication in my vein.

She bustled out of the room, and I waited to speak until the door had closed completely, then looked to Jared, head and vision already starting to blur and swim into a black mass.

"Stay," I croaked out, "Please don't leave me."

Jared came to my side and took my hand gently, so not to disturb my almost-sleep state. He bent down to kiss it carefully around the IV needle.

"I'll never let anyone else hurt you ever again Kim. I love you," he whispered huskily and I felt something warm and watery drip onto my hand as I finally drifted into blissful unawareness.


	28. Chapter 28

Okay. So I'm pretty sure you hate me right now.

DID ANYONE ELSE HAVE AN INSANELY DIFFICULT TIME TRYING TO UPLOAD WHEN THEY REALISED THEIR FATHER HAD SWITCHED THEIR OLD COMPUTER TO WINDOWS 7 WHICH IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH FANFIC UPLOADING?

I did.

I'm not particularly technologically capable, so I've been madly writing around to see if anyone could help, I even emailed into the fanfic people and they NEVER GOT BACK TO ME.

Anyway, onto the story...THIS IS THE FINAL CHAPTER BEFORE THE EPILOGUE.

I'm SOOOO sorry it took so long..i just randomly tried to upload today and it miraculously worked!

Thanks for being with me for this first fanfic. If nothing else, I would LOVE for you to review this ONE LAST PROPER CHAPTER!

...

"SSh you'll wake her.."

"You _so_ didn't just shush me again! Haven't you learnt by now…?"

"Yeah, remember the last time we went through this? I shushed you, you asked me if I just shushed you, I shushed you again, you yet again, asked me if I 'seriously' shushed you and then I kissed you. The rest is history, babe, so you may as well get over it."

_Grrr….grumble_"….don't you...shush me you bastard…I'll give you shush…"

_Where are the voices coming from?_

I tried to pry my eyes, or even my mouth open, but found it rather difficult. Why couldn't I open my eyes? Where am..? _Ohhh_. The hospital. Right.

"Will the both of you shuttup? I've had it up to _here_ with you and you've been in here, what, five minutes?"

_Was that Jared? And Sass and Paul? O thank God she's alright. I wish she'd be quiet though…my body is killing me. Everything aches, and I just wish I could open my eyes…mouth…anything.._

"Look _boy_, you may be the boyfriend, but I'm the best friend- for three years, yeah remember me? So I'll make as much noise as I bloody well-"

"Sass," I groaned, finally pulled from the darkness that had suspended me from reality, "shut. The hell. Up."

My eyes were still protesting, but I knew at once it was Sass squealing and hurtling towards the crappy hospital gurney I was lying on. The bed shook as she sat on the end, still squealing.

I lifted my hands up to protect my ears from the shrill squealing noise she was continually emitting, but was unpleasantly shocked and dazed from a swift _whack_ that came to my right temple from the cast on my arm.

Ouch.

"What are you doing stupid? Do you want that arm to heal, or do you want to end up with a fractured skull as well?"

I blinked a few times, getting my eyes used to the harsh fluorescent white hospital-grade lights. "Well gee, I was going for the fractured skull, just in case I hadn't done enough damage- you stupid, I didn't do it on purpose. It was _your _squealing, I was trying to protect my ears!"

A nervous laugh and a pointed glare from Jared, "Right. I knew that. Sorry. How you feeling Kimmy?"

For the first time, I truly looked around. Jared sat in that uncomfortable looking armchair from the other day, Paul sitting in an equally uncomfortable looking plastic chair next to him, Paul looking much better than I had seen him in a while, but Jared, Jared still looked as exhausted as ever and a little gaunt in the face. Sam Uley and Emily were standing just behind the boys, looking relieved to see my eyes wide open, holding hands and looking as love-dovey as ever. Sass, showing off her ever-glamorous self, sat at the end of the bed, tight blue denim skinny jeans, a gorgeous cream lace top and her hair was artfully styled into some sort of up-do I could never manage. At that thought, I became frightfully self conscious and began to wonder what I looked like. It can't be pretty, I mean, I haven't been awake for…

"How long has it been since the carnival and the uh, incident?"

Five heads looked at anywhere but me, and I expected Jared to answer, but when I turned my gaze towards him, his eyes were cast on what must've been a particularly interesting string on the carpet. Wow. The floor was better to look at than me.

Sam Uley was the one to answer my question. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "It's been a week, Kim."

Wow. I wasn't prepared for that one.

A week? That was a long time. What had I missed? Obviously a bit, if Paul and Sass together in the one room, with no body parts of Paul in disrepair.

I sucked in a deep breath, but was cut short halfway, as my chest was set on fire, so I settled for painful coughs wracking my entire body instead.

When I couldn't stop, and tried to suck in painful breaths unsuccessfully, they all looked alarmed, and Sass leaned over my body to press a giant red button on the wall.

Thanking _E.R._ for teaching me so much over the years, I wanted to stop her, I knew what that button was, but it was too late and I was coughing too violently anyway.

Jared stood up and came over to the bed, bringing me up into a half sitting position and allowing me to lean into his arms for support, as I all but coughed up a lung and anything else in my chest cavity. _Nice_. _Really attractive._

Eyes watering, chest heaving and on fire, I barely noticed as all my friends left and were replaced with a man in a white coat and the same stern nurse as I remembered from the other day.

I tried to suck in smaller breaths as the doctor was coaching me, and after about five minutes, the coughing had subsided into irregular wheezes.

I chuckled, wincing as a pain shot through my chest. "I really know how to clear a room, hey?"

Jared looked solemn, and resumed his seat, but pulled the armchair closer to my side to allow me to hold onto his hand.

The doctor chuckled, and I took a good look at the man. He had to be in his early twenties, gorgeous bronze sex hair and a beautiful award-winning smile that I'm sure charmed most the nurses in the hospital. What was he doing in medicine? I'm sure his true calling lies within modelling…

"So, Kim, is it? I take it you realise now that deep breaths and laughing is out of the equation until you fully recover?" His voice was rich and velvety, musical and soothing. I laid back in the bed, nodding. "On that note," he continued, scanning a few papers attached to a clipboard, "Recovery. It's going to be long and hard. You took quite the, uh, beating from that _bear_."

This was startling. A bear? He thought I was beaten up by a bear? I moved to raise my concerns with his version of events and opened my mouth to protest, but was silenced with a look from both the doctor and Jared.

I was confused. The doctor in on it too? Am I the only one who was kept out of the loop?

He leant down and took my wrist in his hand to check my pulse. I jumped, _almost_ imperceptibly in surprise- his hands were freezing! I noticed the covert look he exchanged with Jared. Yep. The doctor was definitely in on something.

"However," he continued, "I'm sure you and Jared can pull through this, it's just going to take a few months until you're fully healed. In any case, you can't start physio until that lung is a little more on its way to complete repair, so I'll come back with the physiotherapist at a later date, and we'll talk out the situation. For now, rest. No laughter, no deep breaths, no shocking revelations," his emerald eyes darted towards Jared at this, and Jared returned with a glare, "Or anything else likely to cause you to take in too much air too quickly, understand?"

I rasped out a quick 'thanks' and he was off on his way.

He was gorgeous, but nothing compared to my Jared. He looked completely exhausted, his face totally drained of all emotion, but still looked as if he was way out of my league. He really was something out of this world.

Literally.

I spied the nurse, still busily pressing her way through numerous buttons and fluffing every pillow possible. When she eventually stopped making everything possible, absolutely perfect and left the room, I turned to Jared, who had his face buried in his large hands. I swept back the covers and went to hop out of bed, but stopped short when Jared all but sprang from his chair at the sudden noise and began to yell at me.

"KIM! What do you think you're doing? You have a broken arm, leg, ribs and whatever the hell else and you want to get up out of bed?" he yelled angrily, while I blanched at the vicious look adorning his beautiful features.

I was absolutely shocked. Never had I known Jared to lose his temper, or even yell, not at me or anyone else, that was Paul's job. I silently pulled the covers back over myself, and looked down in my lap. My breathing had become a little laboured, and I fought to stay in control to keep the burning chest pain, and tears, at bay.

"I- Kim, I'm sorry." His voice had quietened to a whisper, a heart-wrenchingly monotone voice form my once vibrant Jared. I couldn't take it, and silent tears streamed down my cheeks, spilling over onto the pristine sheets.

Sensing my distress, Jared came closer to the bed in the chair and took my hand again, bringing it to his lips and kissing it tenderly, over and over again.

'Please, Kim, I can't stand to see you crying. Please, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you, I just, I…" Jared was clearly at a loss for words. In an attempt to relieve some of his stress, I took a small breath and wiped my cheeks with the back of my un-casted left hand.

"Jared, please. Tell me what's going on. I know the basics now, just, I don't know, fill in the rest. That's all I really want to hear right now. I mean, I'm not going anywhere soon right? So I can't run away screaming in horror or anything," yes. That was my attempt at poking fun at the whole depressing and messed up situation we had gotten ourselves into. It was a fail.

Jared brought his head up fast, aghast at my words.

_Shit. Big fail. Huge fail. _

"Erm, sorry. That was probably a little bit inappropriate, more of a Sass thing to say really…"

My babbling prodded me into silence, and prompted Jared into speech.

"Right. Well, Kim, I'm so sorry for dragging you into this. It wasn't meant to be like this, I'm sure. No one else has had such a hard time with it and I just, don't know how to deal."

"Hey, stop with the apologies. That was is no way your fault. I chose to follow Paul and that creepy guy attacked me. I don't hold you at all responsible for this."

I could see he was about to protest, almost propelling him further into the depths of guilt.

"No, Jared, stop. I don't want to hear it. I'm right, you're wrong, just get on with the explanation."

This seemed to make him think twice, maybe not erase the guilt, but at least he was focussing back on the explanation he owed me. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, painfully.

"Okay, so you know about the legends of the Quileute tribe from school don't you? How our ancestors descended from wolves, allowing certain members of the tribe to, er, what we call 'phase' into wolves, so essentially they were shape shifters. They were the protectors of the tribe because they were the strongest warriors. It was said that when the larger population of our shape shifter descendants died out, the shape shifting gene only became active when the tribe was in danger, danger that came from their one mortal enemy; the cold ones…aka vampires. Well, the danger's present, and all those overgrown, shirtless boys you see running around, they're shape shifters, the protectors of the tribe. I'm one of them. And before you say anything, no. _Of course_ it's _not_ a drug cartel.

Our generation of shape shifters came into being around four years ago. I know Emily's given you the edited version of her and Sam's story, but it's a bit different when you know the truth. Sam was the first one to go through it all. When it becomes time for you to make the shift, it's incredibly scary for the first time. I know _I_ freaked out, getting angry all the time, running a much higher than average body temp, shaking violently when something upset me, just little things. Then one day …poof. At least I had Paul and Sam though. Sam had no one, and God, it would've been so much worse. He was on his own, didn't know what was happening and could only be directed by Quil Ateara senior, one of the elder's in the tribe whose grandson is nearly ready by the way. He met Sam, shook his hand and nearly had a heart attack on the spot. Boy was he surprised when Sam's hand was hotter than boiling water and really tall and buff too, all the attributes that pointed towards Sam becoming the next shape shifter. He was dating Leah Clearwater at the time and the council told him, though he already knew he'd have to, that he couldn't be with Leah. He could lose control so easily and hurt her. So he broke her heart and lived life as the huge, shady, mysterious guy on the rez who broke poor Leah's heart. His rep was tainted, because of his sudden long absences, constant meetings with the council and telling Leah he couldn't see her anymore. It must have been hard for the poor girl, but I bet it was worse when her cousin came down from the Makah rez…"

_Ahhh. Now this I could put together with what Emily told me that day I came to her place…_

…

_Flashback Emily_

_I was instantly jealous of my cousin for finding such an amazing guy. He was gorgeous, tall dark and handsome to a T and it was obvious he was head over heels for her. Before he could catch sight of me, I hid further into the shadows, I know, pathetic huh? I caught my breath and held back the green monster trying to escape from inside of me. I mean, this utterly gorgeous guy had both stolen my cousin and my heart. It was painful, and I was so jealous, but I walked in and grabbed Leah. I listened for a whole hour while she gushed about how amazing Sam was, Sam this, Sam that, Sam her soul mate. _

_They lasted for a while, but nowhere near as long as anyone expected- they all thought Sam was going to pop the question, but he left her, without an explanation, nothing. Her heart was ripped to shreds and I felt so bad for her. He was obviously too good to be true. _

_I came down to her the summer after, and happened to run into the son of a bitch that ripped my precious cousins heart out and trampled it with dirt. However, I was shocked and horrified to find him down on his knees within ten minutes of listening to my litany of how nasty he truly was, proclaiming his love for me. _

_I didn't know what to do, so I ran into the woods, and y'now," She gestured to her deformed face at this point.._

…_._

Jared nodded. "So you know that part. How Sam fell in love with Emily at first sight and then she got mauled. Well. Again, not exactly true. You know the legend of the third wife? Well, we call it imprinting. When a wolf finds his soul mate- the one special lady he's meant to be with. Sam thinks it has something to do with passing on strong wolf genes. And it's a lot like love at first sight, only more powerful. Paul calls it the penultimate step to being totally whipped. Haha. IT's more like, gravity moves, the whole earth stops, everything suddenly revolves around her and her happiness. As long as she is safe and content, you are too.

_Oh my goodness. Has Jared imprinted? On who? I don't think I could bear it. _

And before you say anything, it's not an obligation, it's more of a push in the right direction. Sure it's the wolf gene that shows you the light of your world, even if you've known her, her whole life, but you would've realised eventually. Anyway, Sam knew he couldn't be with Leah because he could lose his temper so easily and phase with her there, and he had yet to imprint. Everything about us, the shape shifting and all that, only shifters and imprints can be told. You don't just get in on a free pass, it's like the reservations biggest kept secret.

_So what, now that I know, they'll have to kill me?_

So he knew he and Leah weren't meant to be together forever, that there was still a special somebody even more right for each of them, so he had to let her go. I feel for the guy, I mean, every time someone gets told that story, it's the human perspective version and 'ooh poor Leah'. Leah's moving on, Sam is stuck with this until fate decides to stop us. In any case, that day Emily got 'mauled by a bear', it was more like Emily tried to rip into Sam about his love declaration after dumping her cousin, and Sam got angry and actually, ripped into her."

I gasped. _Sam did that? Sam and Emily were like the perfect couple. How could he have done that to the love of his life? Really? He seemed so…kind and gentle._

"Kim, I know what you're thinking, but it's so easy to lose it and phase. Emily was just standing that little bit too close when Sam lost it. She was yelling, accusing him of betraying her cousin, and god knows what else. He didn't mean to, and he will continue to feel guilty and responsible for it for the rest of his life. Trust me, we know. Another wolf thing- we can sort of read each other's minds when we phase. It's more like, hearing thoughts, but it's a cool communication tool that comes in handy. There are the more positive parts of being a shape shifter too- the power, strength, speed. The fact that I can walk through the snow in winter and not have to wear a shirt because my own body heat keeps me at a temperate forty degrees higher than a normal human, is pretty okay too. However, mum's still not happy about the amount of clothes and shoes I've gone through these last few months. Clothes don't shift with us. If we phase in anger, or if it catches us off guard, everything is ripped to shreds, and I have to go home and tell a very angry mother that I need the twenty-third pair of jeans in six months."

_So now I knew. I asked for it to be explained, and he did. But that question was still clouding my mind; who did he imprint on? I don't want to lose Jared. _

Jared pulled in a deep breath and let it out, seeming to let go of all the tension and anger he was previously bottling up.

"I think that's about it. Was there anything else that I missed out that you wanted to know?"

_Okay Kim, broach the subject delicately, don't just barge in and tell him every feeling and accuse him of anything.._

"Jared, I-that is, well,"

Eloquent Kim. Real classy.

"Yes?"

Nice and gentle… "Who did you imprint on!"

That was real gentle. Very delicate. Subtle Kim, subtle.

To my horror, he laughed. He flung his head back in that plastic armchair and laughed, his rich, baritone voice echoing off the bleach white walls.

"Jared. This is not funny. I'm on the brink of hyperventilating again and all you can do is laugh at a serious matter? You think you can just walk off into the sunset with some blonde bimbo and I'll be all okay? I'm not Leah, Jared. I can't deal with it. So just tell me right now and I'll tell my parents I'm moving to Amish Pennsylvania to finish off my senior year." I finished with a small sob, a lone tear escaping out the corner of my eye.

Jared's laughter immediately cut off.

"Amish Pennsylvania, Kim? Really?"

"They don't have to deal with crap like this. They not even allowed boyfriends. Hell they're not even allowed electricity. Life'll be a hell of a lot simpler churning butter and milking cows the rest of my life."

"Kim," his voice and face sobered now, completely filled with honesty and earnest devotion, "you silly girl. The only girl I plan to walk off into the sunset with has rich, glossy raven hair and a tanned complexion, and I know you're not Leah, thank God. She's a bit of a- well, she's not particularly nice since Sam left her- sworn off men for the moment. And you'd never make it through a week without electricity in Amish Pennsylvania, plus, I think they only educate girls bare minimum over there- you're so much more than milking cows for the rest of your life. I was kind of hoping you'd be sitting down to my nice home-cooked meals every night, telling me how much you love your job in the paediatric wing of the hospital in Forks, while our kids tug on our shirts asking for ice cream."

He cooks? Thank-you Mrs Thail.

Our kids?

The only words I could form at this revealing time, "you remembered I want to be a paeds doctor?"

"Kim, I listen and take note of every word that passes your lips," He scooted the chair closer, bringing my hand to his lips and kissing it tenderly, "and yes, of course I remembered and took note of the fact that your grades are good enough to follow your dream, so I won't be holding you back by asking you not to go to college."

Tears were now pouring from my eyes, but I was careful to keep my breathing steady, taking small, slow paced breaths.

"You want kids with me? And, and you'll cook me dinner?"

"Kim, how much more obvious do I need to get? I imprinted on you, really, we're going to have to work on your common sense…"

My breathing hitched, my heart stopped beating and I ceased to exist in this world altogether.

I looked deep into those gorgeous hazel eyes, and reached forward to grasp his neck, pulling it and his lips towards mine….

_BAM!_

We jumped apart, startled at the bang of the door, almost crashing the wall behind it. The harried, nasty nurse had a wild look in her eyes as she rushed over to the monitor.

"What are you two doing? Is she alright? She's meant to be resting, young man. Move so I can check her heart rate."

Disappointed at the break of the moment, I sighed and let Jared's neck slip from my grasp, trailing my fingertips across his cheeks and he sat fully back into his chair and pushed it back for the nasty nurse to bustle her way to my heart monitor.

...

"Kim, I'm almost finished with dinner, so if you'd like to hobble your way over to the table...?" Emily kindly helped me up, handed me my crutches and allowed me to hop awkwardly on the crutches to take my seat for dinner.

She was so kind, everyone was. After the incident, and Jared's explanation, Emily had practically become my second mother, always having me over, cooking for me, taking me shopping...

Not a moment after I settled myself on my crutches, in the least uncomfortable position possible with two funny stick things sticking under you armpits, I heard the front door swing back on it's hinges and in an impossible second Jared was at my side.

"JARED! Don't think I didn't know it was you. You break that door and you're buying me a new one, boy!" Emily loved that door. Sam had handcrafted the wood for their wedding anniversary.

Jared and I exchanged a guilty look, then he swung me up into his arms, bridal style and carried me to the table, settling me in my seat, then swiping my plate from Emily's hand and setting it in front of me, by which time, the two other boys had walked through the door and were sniffing out their own portions of dinner.

Dinner was a pleasant affair, and I had grown accustomed to the company, even Paul. I was used to spending dinner with my parents exchanging reports on the stock market, but I found wolf business much more interesting.

When mum found out Jared had saved me from the 'bear', she had practically swooned over him for days, calling him a 'fairytale hero, right out of my mills and boon romances'. He was becoming less and less embarrassed by the title by the day! Me on the other hand, I pleaded my mother to desist, and when she didn't, I'd go to dad to try and switch the topic to stock exchange.

I was drawn back to the present as the boys' hearing picked up the footfalls of a young girl, of maybe seventeen, gorgeous model length legs, wearing strappy black heels and numerous bangles clinking on her dainty wrists.

Paul stood up and practically ran to the door, so no guesses as to who that was.

My best friend walked through the door, her hand held in the large palm of her new boyfriend who was trailing like an awe struck puppy behind her.

Paul's manners and temper had improved a hundred fold too. I smiled knowingly to myself and he pulled out her chair for her to take a seat, while he then went to the dinner and fetched her plate, being kept warm by the oven. I sent a questioning glance at Sass, who in return, laughed her deep throaty laugh, knowing she had the boy, hook, line and sinker.

Sass had poor Paul whipped. The other day, Jared took me for a walk, or rather a piggy back, and I saw him emerge from the dry cleaners, no fewer than five cocktail dresses in one hand and a shopping bag with a box of tampons in the other.

But they really did love each other. I always knew those college boyfriends weren't for Sass.

"So Paul," I began to tease, "about that girl we were gonna get you..." I trailed off, sending a pointed glance in Paul's direction, noting the discolouration of Sass' face.

She gritted her teeth and turned her whole body to Paul, who had paused mid forkful, chicken nearly in mouth and was looking frantically between her and me.

"WHAT was that about a girl for you, hmm?"

Paul looked lost for words.

"I- Well, before...um, Kim, ARGH! Jared's fault!"

Poor Jared looked wildly around, "How is this my fault!"

"YOU are the one dating miss 'I need to know everything so I'll follow Paul into the woods'..."

Jared slammed down his fork, and I intervened, knowing this could go bad.

"Jared, sit down and eat. Paul I was joking. I think I did a pretty good job of finding you a girl, didn't I? Sass is a good catch, and you're lucky Jared is with me or you wouldn't have even been given a second look without my help!"

Paul looked humbled. "Sorry Kimmy, lost it there for a mo'.."

Sass then launched into a tirade of just how lucky Paul was to have her that lasted for around twenty minutes, by which time we had adjourned to the lounge to lay in front of the TV and talk about all things wolfie.

"You know," I directed at Sass, "I feel really bad not including Emma. She's not in on the whole wolf thing and..."

Jared laughed and stopped me with a finger pressed to my lips. He place a light kiss on my mouth and settled me further into his lap.

"Guess who we have sitting outside right now?"

"Oh my God, what have you done?" I screeched, jumping to conclusions left, right and centre.

"Hey, hey don't freak. It's not really anyone you know..."

I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing at least that they hadn't kidnapped Emma, or worse, made her sit outside during dinner.

Psssh. What was I thinking?

I knew my boyfriend wasn't _that_ rude.

"Seth Clearwater, Jacob Black and Embry Call."

"They're at school aren't they? But a few years younger than us...?

"They're only a year younger, but yes."

"Hang on, Jacob Black? I thought only imprints could know about the secret. Jacob is just Emma's cousin.."

"Why won't you let me finish woman?" Jared laughed, frustrated.

"sorry," I squeaked. He leant down and kissed my forehead, as I snuggled into his chest.

"In about half an hour, when she finishes her shift at the cafe, Emma will call you and relay an epic story to you...something to do with a half naked boy in the grade below us staring at her for ten minutes while she poured coffee to the patrons of the shop. Upon after said ten minutes, she walked over to police chief Charlie Swan, interrupted his well deserved coffee and asked him to remove said half naked boy from the premises for fears that he was stalking her..."

Sass and I both looked at each other, and squealed.

"OH MY GOD!"

"Who was it!"

"He imprinted!"

"Emma's one of us now!"

Sam chuckled from the love seat he was sharing with Emily. "Poor Seth got the shock of his life when Charlie Swan came to tell him he'd have to escort him from the premises, especially since Charlie is his godfather."

I started up form Jared's lap, but he held me down.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Sass and I stared at my boyfriend and Sass answered for me.

"To find last year's yearbook, duh."

Jared, Paul and Sam all looked puzzled. Emily's face, however, was omniscient. She looked at the three of them and threw her hands up exasperated.

"To see what he looks like, to find his contact details so they can accost him at the next possible chance..."

All the boys looked slightly scared at this prospect, but left the comment well alone and started to clear the living room so we could have 'girl time'.

...

Sure enough, by nine o'clock, we had all the goss and had seen Seth Clearwater for the first time in this new light. Of course, we had to be devious and extract info and give advice without revealing the whole 'I'm a shape shifter, but don't follow me into the woods like Kim did' thing, and I must say, we were pretty successful.

Sass and I drove over to Emma's for a face to face conference.

...

Jacob opened the door.

"Wolf girl one, wolf girl two, come in, almost wolf girl number three is upstairs, trying to understand why I've just finished beating up one of my best friends who was also escorted off her work premises because she thought he was stalking her."

"Oh my God, Jacob, you beat Seth up?"

"Just his face."

"Why! Is he okay?"

"Clearwater is fine, he heals quick just like the rest of us. I just, lost control a little when he said he imprinted on my cousin. But don't you go telling Emma I was gallivanting around the country protecting her virtue and all that crap, right? Or I'll beat up your boyfriends."

"Pssh, Paul has a quick temper, he'd do you in a minute." Sass taunted, a little.

"I thought you'd want him to 'do' you, but if he's less than a minute, I guess it's understandable..."

Sass grew red and began shouting. Here we go again.

I hobbled past Jacob who was talking a few calming breaths in between laughing his ass off at his new brothers girlfriend and her choice of words. I awkwardly hopped up the stairs and made my way as fast as I could to Emma's room, which opened when she realised she could hear Sass yelling and Jacob laughing, an often funny but dangerous situation.

I leapt into her arms, upon which she seemed to forget her feuding cousin and best friend and launched into how Jacob had beat up Seth, and yadda yadda yadda.

"Kim," she began as we were settling down on her comfortable queen sized bed, "He was staring at me, I mean, like intensely, and it was scaring me! What was I supposed to do?"

"Well, you could've-"

"Yeah I suppose you're right, I should've talked to him...I mean he's suddenly appeared in my life and I haven't even spoken to him, but damn, he's a fine piece of ass! I mean, he's a Greek God, don't you think Kim?"

"Well, yeah and-"

"I know, he's gorgeous. And he's smart too, he's on the honours list, I checked, cos you know I hate stupid guys..."

"Yeah, but-"

"But there's something different about him, in the last two days, I've seen him more than I've ever seen him, and I didn't even know his name until Charlie Swan told me, did you know Charlie's Seth's godfather? Yeah I was surprised, but their families have been friends for like ages, have you ever talked to him before Kimmy?"

"Well, I did-"

"No, of course you haven't, or you would've already told me. I mean, he's a year younger than us...Oh my god, does that make me a cougar Kim? Please tell me I'm not a cougar!"

"Emma, you're-"

"It's only a year. Of course I'm not a cougar. But there is something different about him, he's not like other guys. And he's huge! Like Jared huge. I wonder if they're related. Maybe they have the same genes as our ancestors did, you know the shape shifting ones..?"

_Thump!_

I felt, rather than heard my body land on the floor of Emma's room. I tried to catch my breath and wiggle all body parts to make sure they were still in function, particularly with my recent accident. Then I heard two pairs of footsteps thumping up the stairs, when the door was thrown open by Jacob and Sass, and Emma sat peering over the edge of the bed, down at me.

"Emma, Jared's gonna kill you."

"Oh, shit. I didn't mean to, hang on, I DIDN"T! Kim just fell off. I did jack all. Jared can't kill me for something I didn't do!"

"I'm good." I said, trying to sit up on my right hand, ignoring the dull ache of my leg, still in its blasted cast, and my left hand squashed underneath me, freshly _out _of its cast.

The three of them came rushing to my aid and once I was safely reclining on the bed, Emma rushed down to grab an ice pack.

I turned to the other two.

"She knows something's up," I whispered, surprise and shock showing on their faces, "She feels the pull too and knows there's something different about him. She reckons that Seth and Jared have the same genes- the one's of the ancient ancestors, I quote, 'you know the shape shifting ones'. You know she'll find out, and it's gonna happen soon and-"

"What are you lot looking all so serious about? She hasn't hurt herself again has she?"

Oh god, she didn't hear too much did she? She doesn't look surprised, so she probably wasn't listening, I mean, we were whispering, right?

"So anyway, Jacob, if you'd like to leave the room, I'm really not happy with you for beating up my stalker slash your best friend I never knew about, particularly his face. I rather like it."

Jacob growled, looking like he could go for round two with poor Seth Clearwater's face.

Jacob left, grumbling, "bloody Clearwater, slash best friend, more like best friend no more, I'll rip him to shreds, little stalker..."

And so, we spent the night, helping Emma analyse the situation and listen to her gush over Seth Clearwater until we finally crashed on Emma's bed, still fully clothed and absolutely exhausted.

...

_Tap, tap tap._

I woke with a slight start. Listening hard in the silence of the night for what had woken me from the depths of sleep.

Nothing? I was confused. Whatever I had heard must have been a part of my rather overactive imagination.

No! There it was again...

_Tap, tap, tap._

My breathing quickened, my heart racing, I sat up slowly so not to disturb the others and grabbed the closest weapon I could find...

A paintbrush?

Great Kim, a vampire is possibly outside the window, waiting to suck your blood, or drag you off to its cave to have its wicked way with you, or whatever it is those sadistic creatures do to poor innocent seventeen year olds in leg casts with crutches, and you grab a paintbrush.

Real badass.

I stepped cautiously over to the window, trying to silence the dull _thunk_ of my cast against the floor board, which seemed to be louder than a NASCAR racetrack in the silence of night.

The window was slightly open, but locked in position, about six inches open at the bottom. I bent down as best I could in the cast and looked out into the dark night, but caught quite the fright when two golden eyes peered back at me.

I gasped silently and rammed the paint brush through the open window, encountering a squishy surface as I moved back from the window, preparing to call for Jacob, when a very warm hand grabbed mine through the six inch opening of the window and pulled me towards the window again.

A grunt came.

"It's Seth Clearwater, Sass, Emma, Kim, whichever one of you it is, open the window, I think you just blinded me!"

Oh shit.

My heart slowed down at this revelation, and I reached with my free hand to unlock the window.

I cleared my throat quietly. "Ahem, my hand? May I have it back now?"

"Oh, right," the voice came.

I leaned out the window and tried to motion to Seth Clearwater to keep it down while we chatted.

"So, Seth Clearwater. You imprinted on my best friend. What the hell are you doing outside her window at this time of night when she's never even met you?"

Seth, sitting on a branch of the huge oak tree, right at Emma's window, cleared his throat nervously.

"Ahem, well, yes, about that..."

"Stop. Don't worry. I've done this before."

"You've done what before?" Seth asked, probably puzzled as to my meaning and resigned tone.

"How do you think Paul landed Sass after spilling a jug of water down her top and practically squishing her to death? Me. I've decided to title myself the unofficial matchmaker of the pack. And you're new to both romance _and_ wolf life, so I have decided, in my infinite wisdom, to take you under my wing and help you get the girl."

"Right, so you're Kim. Jared told me you'd be like this.."

"Never mind Jared, boy. What you _need_ to do is get the hell back to bed and stay there the rest of the bloody night. Don't go sneaking up on her, she won't like it. Hell, I don't like it...it's almost voyeuristic, what were you thinking!"

Poor Seth looked lost for words.

"Anyway. she's working tomorrow, and if you stalk her there again before she knows you, she'll call your godfather, who also conveniently happens to be the police chief and ask him to escort you off the premises _again_, and probably take an AVO out against you. At school, on Monday, you need to bring a bunch of flowers, not red roses, just something nice, with a card saying something of likes, 'Sorry about Saturday, I'd really like to get to know you' perhaps with something witty tagged on the end, like 'Stalk you later', or perhaps not...I don't know, come up with your own, then she'll initiate a conversation, thank you for the flowers, she says, 'see you later' or something to that accord, and you yell, 'wait! How 'bout dinner Friday?' and the rest is history."

"Wow. You have it all mapped out."

"Seth. Go back to bed. Do what I say and you'll be set. I'm rooting for you boy, I want Emma to be included in all this crazy crap."

He leaned in swiftly, and kissed my cheek, a sweet gesture, sure fire evidence of what I was sure was his usual sweet demeanour.

"Thanks Kimmy, I owe you one."

As he swung down the tree, I growled at him.

"Only Paul calls me Kimmy, bucko. Don't push your luck!"


End file.
